


$3.84

by xxrazorleafxx



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety, Awkward Crush, Beach Holidays, Beach House, Beaches, Crush, Crush at First Sight, Drinking, Drunken Shenanigans, Eventual Relationships, Group chat, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Secret Crush, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Weed, and fun touching heck yeah, bad taste in music, buckle up kiddos this might be a while, eventual make out, lance is an anxious mess he just hides it behind his bravado, pot, seriously lance your music taste sucks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-05
Updated: 2017-12-21
Packaged: 2018-07-29 12:49:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7685263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxrazorleafxx/pseuds/xxrazorleafxx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lance isn't that much of a lady killer after all, especially since he embarrasses himself in front of the hot TA at work.</p>
<p>Who on no planet is hot. Not even remotely. </p>
<p>...Okay maybe a little.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I'm Klance trash and weak for coffee shop AUs. But also college. Cause everyone needs coffee to survive it.  
> Dedicated to akkichi on tumblr and many thanks for moosifers for being the beta reader for my first fic.  
> ILYSM <3

“Fuck. Off.”

“Lance!”

Lance let out a groan as he lifted his head from the table he was sitting at with Allura. The soft jingle coming from the door alerted the two of them that a new customer just came in, and Lance prayed they’d look at the menu and decide ‘hey, maybe I don’t want scalding hot coffee from hell today’. He was enjoying the Latino music that constantly played from the speakers of the store. It always changed between that and Lance’s trashy, but safe for work, pop playlist. The last thing he wanted to do was get up and serve another old fart.

“Nope. We’re out of coffee. The machine exploded. There’s nothing left but burnt grinds,” he continued to mutter at the table.

“Uhm, are you still open?” asked a new voice. Lance kept his head down, praying that Allura would help him so he could just go away.

“I took one for the team last time. It’s your turn, champ.” Allura patted Lance’s arm, as if reading his mind, which seemed to give him just enough strength to raise his head from his uncomfortably comfortable wooden pillow. Who wanted coffee at 7pm anyways? It was late.

_Doesn’t coffee past 7pm give people sleeping problems?_ He thought. Lance then noticed the pile of paper under the man’s arm. Ah, that explains it.

Begrudgingly, Lance raised his head just enough from the table to form coherent words for the intruder to understand.“Right, what can I get for you-” Lance finally looked up at the man standing by their table, staring the employees down and catching his words in his throat.

“Can I get a cappuccino for here?” He looked around the cafe a bit before catching himself. “Oh, uhm, please.” Lance slipped out of his chair to move behind the counter, fiddling with his blue apron trying to collect himself in front of the man.

“Yeah n-no problem.” Lance quickly punched in on the register the coffee with shaking hands.

“That’d be $3.84.” Lance just watched as the man struggled to reach for his wallet with his free hand. He’d never dare admit it, but that was the first time he ever thought a mullet looked...good. When the man finally fished out a five, Lance just stared at the money.

“It was 3.84, right?’ said the man, slightly confused. The words brought Lance out of his daze.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” he laughed nervously “just a long day.” _What is wrong with you_ , he scolded himself as he opened the cash and started to count the man’s change. He placed it on the counter before turning around to make the cappuccino. The sound of change clinking against the tip jar rang out as Lance pressed the espresso. His anxiety started to melt as he made the drink.

He didn’t know who tall dark and handsome was, but he did know coffee. Lance wouldn’t admit it to Allura, but he’s very proud of his variety of latte art skills. After carefully steaming the milk and drizzling foam with chocolate, Lance placed the man's drink on the counter.

“Thanks,” he said before picking up the cup and saucer, moving towards the back of the cafe.

Lance was secretly appreciative that he didn’t have to carry it over to him. After cleaning up the machine, he gripped his apron to force his hands to stop shaking as he moved back over to the table where Allura sat, watching him with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

“Well he’s quite the pretty face,” she teased.

Lance scoffed. “Not as pretty as you, though,” he winked.

Allura rolled her eyes, accustomed to Lance’s casual flirting. “Why don’t you save those moves for Mr. TA over there.”

Lance sputtered, “What? Him? Hah. Nice one Allura. Uh, Wait he’s a TA?” he said, carefully trying to change the subject.

“He’s the new English TA that no one can shut up about.”

“Ah. Yeah. Still no clue.” Lance’s area of studies focused more on astronomy than anything else, let alone an English class.

“Frankly I think the TA for women’s gender studies is far more attractive.”

“Legs for days,” Lance said wistfully, propping his chin up with his hand.

That would explain why he was here, though. Cafe Altea was close to the local University, but considering it’s location most of the clientele was old folks looking to wet their whistles after shopping. Which was nice, Lance had to admit. The Starbucks on campus was too crazy for his taste. The constant hustle and noise drove his anxiety insane even when he stopped for a strawberry creme frappuccino - what? Fraps were the shit. He couldn’t even imagine what  
working there would be like.

Well.

He could.

And the thought alone drained the blood from his face.

So here he was, working for Allura’s father at their small cafe just a few blocks down the road from the University. The one thing that the campus Starbucks had that Altea didn’t was the young students, more specifically the hot students. The only tits here he saw were at knee level of the patrons, and they most often belong to the body of an 85 year-old man.

“I will give mullet-boy that at least.”

“Allura,” Lance said softly, “Why would I pay attention to a guy who isn’t myself?” He waggled his eyebrows to further his point which Allua responded to by crossing her arms over her chest.

“So the name Keith doesn’t ring a bell?”

Lance brought a finger up to his lips as he mulled over the name. He turned to scout where the mystery TA sat in the more comfortable corner couches, head buried in papers. His brows were furrowed in concentration as he read each line with care. Lance could feel his cheeks start to burn as he realised that he was staring. Oh well no wonder girls fawn over him. He thought irritatedly.

“Could you even make coffee with a boner that raging?” Allura teased.

Lance stuttered as he whipped back to face his coworker and fellow classmate. “I have never! Such profanities coming from a young woman such as yourself!” He dropped his voice as he brought a hand to his chest, “You should be ashamed.”

“I’ll spray you with the vinegar water again, don’t think I won’t.”

Lance gave a squeak of protest and quickly fled behind the counter to escape Allura’s wrath.

“You wouldn’t.”

“You really want to test that theory? I’ve got nothing but time, kiddo.”

\--

After a couple of hours, Lance was left alone to close the shop. Allura had left not too long ago and it was time for Lance to break out his trashy pop playlists. He needed some upbeat tunes to clean to, and the amount of patrons left had dwindled down to a minimum. He turned the speakers up a notch before grabbing the broom to start sweeping. Lance swayed his hips and moved to the beat of “My Humps” while dutifully sweeping up coffee grinds from behind the counter. Before he could continue sweeping, Lance had to clear and wipe down all the tables. In the past hour only a handful of people came into the store so there wasn’t much left to clear away since most of those were to go. Tonight’s closing routine was going to be pretty quick, which Lance was eternally grateful for.

He hummed quietly to “Don’t Stop the Party” as he wiped down the tables and dancing between groups of them. It wasn’t until Lance spun dramatically to the corner couch seat that he realised that Keith was still sitting in the corner, but this time he wasn’t concentrating on the piles of papers he had, but on the skinny swaying hips of Lance.

Shit.

Heat flared up on Lance’s cheeks. Consumed by the rhythm and ever so soothing voice of Pitbull, he completely forgot about the only other person left in the cafe. Lance just stared at Keith like a deer in the headlights.

_Shitshitshitshitabortfuckabort_.

Lance did the only sane thing one could do in this situation, and that was sprint back to the safety of the front counter where he could squat on the ground and have a mini panic attack.

_Nice one, Lance. Real smooth. I mean, you are smooth. No one can blame you for being so damn good at dancing._

_Right? It’s no wonder he was staring._

_Of course, that was the only reason he was._

_Damn right, you beast._

_Thanks, Lance._

_No problem, Lance._

Releasing the breath he was holding, Lance finally collected himself where he could finally stand back up. But the sight of Keith standing before the counter threatened his legs to crumble beneath him. He saw his purple eyes pierce through him.

“Uh, should I just leave this here?” Lance stared at him unblinking. Keith cleared his throat and placed the cup and saucer on the counter, just on top of the clear box of teas. “I’m just gonna take that as a yes.”

Finally realising what Keith meant, Lance snapped back into reality.

“Yeah, sorry. Fine. That’s. Fine.”

“Right...thanks.”

Lance didn’t take his eyes off the man as he watched Keith gather up all his papers from his table and leave the store with a soft jingle. Only then did Lance drop his head to the counter, hitting it with a loud thunk.

He took it back, there was no way Starbucks was more stressful than this very moment. And realising he still had so much to clean and just thirty minutes left to do it just added salt to the wound.

“Good job, Lance.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro: lol

(1:42pm): To “Space Jam” Allura [mysogynycrusher], Hunk [TheHunk], Pidge [pidgey], Lance [DrMcLovin], Shiro [Champion]

**Allura** : Lance wants to bone a TA.

**Hunk** : of course he does. lance would bone anything that bounces

**Pidge:** :^( isn’t there smth in the handbook against that sort of thing?

**Allura** : We all know Lance isn’t going to read anything he doesn’t absolutely have to.

How he still got into UoV eludes me...

**Lance** : WHY IS EVERYONE SHIT TALKING ME IN THE GROUP CHAT???  >:(  
:’( and im hurt hunk. i have standards you know.

**Pidge** : I didnt know your standard was TAs. Isnt that a bit out of your league?

**Hunk** : shots fired

**Allura** : ooooooooooooooh I believe the term is, “GET DUNKED ON” Lance ;)

**Lance** : shirooooooo. How can u approve of this bullying? :’(

**Shiro** : I only approve because of how much I disapprove of you chasing after a teacher’s assistant.

**Lance** : IM NOT I SWEAR!

**Allura** : He was practically undressing him with his eyes when he walked into Altea.

**Pidge** : I didnt think this is how you were going to come out to us lance, but either way we’re proud of you and here for you if you need us :^)

**Lance** : omfg im nOT GAY! And i sure as hell am not gay for KEITH.

**Pidge** : so mystery TA has a name now, does he? So so proud of you lance.

**Lance** : I AM NOT GAY FOR A TA

 

**(Allura** has changed **Lance** [DrMcLovin] to **Lance** [ASSFUCKER900] **)**

 

**Lance** : WTF NO. 

**Hunk** : LMAO 

**Lance** : CHANGE IT BACK. RN. 

**Allura** : Make me, assfucker9000.

**Lance:** PIDGE. HELP ME. HOW DO I CHANGE IT BACK? 

**Pidge** : I think it suits you just fine.

**Shiro** : lol

**Lance** : idk why im friends w/ u ppl >:(

**Hunk** : you’d be nothing without us.

**Allura** : It’s too true.

**Pidge:** case and point: you know we have our midterm for cosmic evolution coming up in a few days, right?

**Lance** : I refuse to dignify that w/ a response

**Allura** : So that’s a ‘no' on that one.

**Hunk** : we’ll come by Altea when your shift ends tonight for a group study sesh.

**Shiro** : I never took that class, but I’ll still join the study group. I have a paper to work on, but maybe I can be of some help.

**Pidge** : you just want the free coffee.

**Shiro** : I’m not one to deny free coffee.

**Lance** : as long as u dont chug it like u chug beer ur good

**Shiro** : We’re not talking about that now.

**Pidge** : ;^) sure thing, champion

**Shiro** :  >:(  
  
**Hunk** : you finish at 6 tonight, right? we’ll start saving your ass then.

**Lance** : it is a p nice ass to save

**Hunk** : save it for the TA, lance.

\--  
 

Altea was at a nice hum while the group circled around one of the larger tables in the back. A younger employee - Shay? Lance was bad with names and just called her poetry girl - stood behind the counter, popping her gum while scrolling through her phone. Since Lance finished his shift, the latin pop was exchanged for the other employee’s chillhop mix. A few other patrons sat around quietly chatting amongst themselves, but it was a far nicer environment than the library on campus which made it a popular study spot for the group. This way they weren’t distracted by the gossip coming from the medical students, or the laughter erupting from the gaggle of first years who thought it was fun to just take up all the good seats in the library. 

“This is impossible,” Lance whined, dropping his pen onto his notebook. It was covered in doodles of various mecha suits and cats, most of them crossing over onto his equations and notes. Hunk peeked over to glance at Lance’s notebook, trying to puzzle out what was wrong.

“That’s ‘cause you’re using the formula from chapter seven, which doesn’t work for this problem. You need the formulas from the chapter after it,” he pointed out before going back to flip through his own notes.  

“It’s times like these that I want to punch space in the face,” Lance grumbled as he scratched out the old formula.

“I don’t think space has a face to punch,” Pidge muttered, not removing their eyes off the laptop screen, only pausing for a brief moment to push their glasses further up the bridge of their nose.

Allura giggled from where she sat, rewriting out her old notes in a neat colour coordinated notebook. In comparison to Lance’s chicken scratch her notes looked like a page from an illuminated manuscript. Lance repeatedly swore she was a goddess of writing in her past life.

“Seshat,” Hunk interjected. “The goddess of wisdom, knowledge, and writing. She was a scribe for the gods. She was credited for creating the alphabet and writing in general.”

“Yeah. Her. It was probably you,” Lance said, his voice trailing off as his concentration shifted to the pen he was trying to balance off his upper lip.  
  
“Hearing that from someone who’s adamant about punching space while they balance a pen on their face, I don’t know if I should be flattered or not.”

Lance waggled his pen-stache. “Admit it, you’re impressed.”

“Naturally,” she sighed, returning to her notes. Lance dropped the pen and groaned in frustration.

“I’m going go get some more coffee. I need to get up and stretch my legs or they might fall off without me noticing. Anyone need a top off?”

“Bring me some tea, please?” Allura chimed.

“Make it a whole pot. I’ll get in on that action,” Hunk added.

“Same here.” That was another cup for Pidge, Lance added to his mental list.

“Oh! Oh! And maybe some of those cakes? They looked really good...” Hunk rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

“Anything for you,” Lance gave a shallow bow. “Shiro? Do you need another cup?”

Shiro looked up from his laptop, quiet for the most part of the night as he focused on the paper he had due in a couple of days. He blinked a few times, pulling himself out of his trance.

“Oh. Yes, please, if you wouldn’t mind?”

“Not a problem.” Lance noticed Shiro’s leg bounce, slightly rattling his laptop and wondered how many that was already. 3 cups? 4? They were only here for a few hours, but Shiro was really pounding them back. It made Lance nervous for his upper years, having enough trouble already as it is.  

Shay looked up from her phone, eyes widening at Lance’s approach.

“Oh thank God. Hey, would you mind manning the front while I go out for a sec? My brother won’t stop texting me, something about the house again. I should probably call him and sort it out.” The girl’s hands were a blur as she explained, clearly frazzled.  
  
Lance waved her off. “Go go go, family calls. I got it.”

Shay’s shoulders dropped in relief. “Thanks, I’ll be quick,” she promised before untying her apron and running out through the front. In the meantime, Lance got the pot of cherry green tea ready while eyeing the array of tiny cakes out in the display case trying to size up which ones looked the best to try today. It was his life mission to eventually try a bite of each cake Altea brings in. 

Flecks of scalding hot water splashing onto his fingers brought Lance’s focus back onto the tea. He let out a hiss of pain. _Seriously, though. Fuck. Do they get their water from the wells of Hell or something?_

A man cleared his throat behind him.

“Yeah yeah buddy I’ll be with you in a sec,” Lance called irritably, putting the pot down and shaking out the pain and heat from his hands. He wiped them across his pants before turning to face the impatient dipstick.  

“Shit.”

“I’m sorry?” Keith asked, eyes narrowing in on Lance. _No one is allowed to have eyes that pretty_ , he thought. _Especially when I’ve sworn in front of them._

“Shift! Shift,” he tried to fumble out. He laughed trying to cover the nervousness from his voice. _What are you? Twelve?_ “Just thought it was funny running into you again when this isn’t even my shift. I’m just covering for a coworker. She should be back any second. Yeah. This is a work environment...” _Please come back, Shay. I can’t word right now in front of an English TA. This is it. I think I’m dying._

“...Right. I’ll just wait I guess.” Keith started to move towards a set of chairs when Lance called out.

“No! No no, it’s fine. I can still make you a cup of coffee. Not like I can’t work an espresso machine once my shift ends.” _Lance what are you doing?_ “What can I get for you?” _You’re not on the clock. You had an out!_

“Oh. Okay, thanks I guess.” Keith returned to the cash register, fishing out his wallet in the process. “Just a cappuccino to go, please.”

“Not a problem!” Lance squeaked before clearing throat to bring his voice back to a normal human speaking tone. _Bring it down a notch, dumbass. It’s just coffee. You do this for six hours a day._ “That’ll be 3.84,” he added, voice back to normal. Keith gave a ‘mm’ in response as he handed Lance a five. Before Lance could collect Keith’s change from the register he told him to just put it in the tip jar.

“It’s the least I can do, seeing you’re helping me while you’re busy...er studying?” Keith pointed to the group sitting around not to far away. Only now did Lance notice what a mess of books and papers they’ve made at Altea. But something was missing, or rather someone.

“Yep, you know how it is during midterm season,” piped up Allura.

“ _Jesusfuckingchrist_ when did-” Lance proclaimed, finally noticing the young woman standing near him, a pot of the forgotten tea in hand.

“Language,” she scolded before continuing “and I noticed you were taking a while to get our things, but don’t worry about it. I got it, just make the man his drink, yeah?” She gave a knowing wink before heading back to the group with their tea and mugs. Lance pushed back at the heat rising at cheeks as he moved to the espresso machine with a soft “yes ma’am”.

By the time Lance finished steaming the milk, Allura was back and chatting with Keith while she waited for him to finish up.

“But after this we should be fine. There’s going to be a party once midterms are done next Friday which will give us all a chance to finally relax,” she gave a small appreciative hum. “I think it’ll be a good change of pace.”

Lance placed the cup topped off with a chocolate swirl of a floral design onto the counter, taking a moment to flash Allura a small questioning glare.

“You should come too, Keith, take a break from work and studies for a night,” Allura finished with a flash of a smile.

“What?”

“What!”

Lance’s mouth dropped. He couldn’t decide which to focus on, Allura’s smug smile or Keith’s questioning expression.

“Yeah, why not? You’re still a student, you need to enjoy the student life,” she persisted.

Keith looked away. “I’m not sure that’d be a good idea.”

“Think about it! I hear the person throwing it is quite known for their gatherings. If you change your mind, you know where to find us,” Allura gave him a warm smile before grabbing a plate of cakes and Shiro’s coffee for the table.

“Yeah, I’ll think about it. Thanks,” Keith said before grabbing his coffee and leaving.  

“Of course. See you around.” Allura turned around to face Lance, beaming proudly with her arms folded across her chest. “You’re welcome.” Lance sputtered, still dazed about what had just transpired before him. “Pull yourself together, space cowboy. And grab the cakes will you? I see Shay’s coming back now. You’re free to go back to your studying.” Allura took a cup of fresh coffee for Shiro, expecting Lance to follow close behind.

Lance just stared, silent for once, moving slowly to get the cakes and trailing behind Allura. He didn’t hear Shay thank him when she slipped behind the counter, tying her apron back around her waist.

“What just happened? You look like you just saw a ghost,” Pidge asked moving their laptop from the table and slipping it into their backpack to make room for all the goodies.

“I’m just that good of a wingman,” Allura announced smugly.

“Want to work some of that magic for me with Shay?” Hunk asked, looking towards Allura with awe.

“Next time, Hunk.”

Hunk nodded solemnly as he poured everyone their tea.

“What did you do!?” Lance slapped his hands against his cheeks.

“You looked like a blushing bride up there, so I figured you needed some help. And clearly you did.”

“Why? I told you I’m not gay for Keith!” It was times like this the group was grateful for Altea’s quiet foot traffic. Explaining such things in the library wouldn’t go unheard.

“Oh no? Then get him to the party and just talk to him. If you’re so adamant about just being bros, then striking up a simple conversation won’t kill you,” Allura pressed.

“Fine. I will,” Lance retorted. “I’ll prove that I, in no way shape or form, find an English TA attractive.” He took a sip from his tea.  
  
“Or you’ll get drunk and grind up his ass in the dark,” Pidge remarked before reaching for a green cake. Lance choked on his tea while Hunk snatched the cake away before Pidge could reach it.

“I take it back, can space punch me in the face so I don’t have to deal with this anymore?” he sputtered, placing the warm mug back on the table and wiping droplets of tea from his chin with the back of his hand.

Shiro looked up from his laptop and looked around the table. Lance was hunched over, staring at the ground and hoping for some divine retribution while Allura sat giggling over her tea watching Pidge and Hunk fighting with forks over a small green cake. “Did I miss something?” He asked to no one in particular.

This was gonna be a long week. If midterms don’t kill Lance, the party surely would.  
  
_I’m so fucked._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for your comments and kudos. It really keeps me going, and I may or may not be doing a small little dance every time when I see all the love... You're all super sweet <3.  
> S/O to moosifers again for being my beta reader. Thank you friendo!  
> You can follow me on tumblr at xxrazorleafxx for more gays in space. I also do art so keep a look out for doodles of the squad.  
> I'm gonna be trying to update every 2-4 days~


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Need help getting up?”
> 
> Lance scoffed, “N-no! What makes you think that?” 
> 
> “The fact that I’m up here and you’re still down there?” Keith sneered.

“Cheers!” Tequila sloshed from three shot glasses as Lance, Shiro, and Allura marked the start of their night with pre drinks at Shiro’s. It was an obvious choice to do it at his apartment since he was the closest to campus, and all the parties in and around it. Allura somehow always knew where the best parties were being held, that way they didn’t have to wander from house to house searching for a decent one to stay at. In the winter, they were especially grateful for her skills - Lance didn’t appreciate freezing his ass off just so he could go somewhere to dance.

Pidge and Hunk said they’d join the three of them at the party later. They weren’t big on the whole party scene - Hunk usually hated the noise, and Pidge didn’t appreciate everyone practically stepping on them. But nonetheless, they made an effort to go out and try the nightlife once in a while, and since it was the end of their midterm stress, it was time to unwind.

There was always the post party, if anything, where everyone got a chance to just cuddle up and enjoy each other’s company - even if it meant holding back someone’s hair while they got familiar with the side of the toilet bowl now and then.

They licked the salt from their hands, knocked back their drinks, and slammed the glasses down as they all bit into their limes. Tonight was a night to celebrate, and Lance wasn’t going to waste any time.

He’d sauntered out of the exam hall twenty minutes after everyone else in their friend group, blaring ‘Pretty Boy Swag”, confident that he passed his exam. Unfortunately, his little parade got cut short when a TA came out of the room to politely ask Lance to ‘turn that heresy down’. Still, he and everyone else was stoked; looked like all that cramming at Altea paid off.

Lance moved towards the table where their booze sat, like a true college trophy case. Artificially coloured liquid glimmered in the light like a beacon. Lance looked over the bottles before going for a cooler. What? They were fruity and delicious like punch, but with more of an impact. He was a firm believer of a non-gender binary on alcohol.

He opened the bottle and gave Shiro a mischievous grin. “So, how hard are you gonna go tonight, Champion?”

Shiro glared at him. “I’m gonna stay in my limit tonight, alright? I have another report to start tomorrow.”

Allura clapped Shiro’s back while she handed him a can of beer. “We all know your limit is almost unmeasurable, so loosen up and have another. You’re pushing yourself too hard.”

Shiro took the can with a resigned sigh then laughed. “I’d crash and burn without you guys.”

Lance gave a high pitched gasp. He brought his hands - and cooler - up to his face in awe. “Did you hear that, Allura?”

“That’s one for the history books. I’m never forgetting this, tequila’d up or not,” Allura cooed.  
“This is why I never invited you to the keg parties, you wouldn’t have been able to handle it,” Shiro muttered.

“We were also underaged at that time,” Allura added.

“That’s true. You couldn’t handle the kegmaster!” he said proudly.

Lance groaned. “I wish I got to meet frat boy Shiro in his prime.”

He plopped down onto Shiro’s neatly made bed. Since his apartment was fairly small in scale, Shiro kept it sparsely furnished except for the necessities. But it’s small size made it a cozy place to hang out. The only downfall was that after a heavy night of drinking, everyone could hear whomever was in the bathroom clutching the toilet. In those times they usually found their way to the rooftop via the fire escape.

“Instead we only ever got to hear the aftermath when you finally resurfaced from your hangover hole.” Lance found comfort in his peach bellini cooler.

Allura giggled from where she leaned against the boozed table.

“And see the poor decisions in the flesh. Literally.” Allura pointed to the sleeve on Shiro’s right arm with a nod.

It was a robot design, made to look like a mechanical arm. The shading took days, Shiro remembered, but it was part of the process. The ex-frat boy rubbed it self-consciously.

“I couldn’t leave it at just the lines,” he defended. “It was all or nothing at that point.” Shiro gave a shrug and took a drink. “Worth it.”

“And the white highlights were a definite game changer too.” Allura winked.

“Think I should do some highlights, then?” Lance asked, playing with his hair.

“So you could look like a latino backstreet boy?” Allura shook her head. “Nope. No way. I don’t think Keith would dig it anyways.”

“No listen! We could do it right now. I’m sure Shiro has a bottle of Javex somewhere. Keith isn’t coming to the party anyways, It’ll be perfect.”

Allura raised an eyebrow. “Didn’t I tell you? He came by Altea last night and asked me for the address to the party. That’s why I told you to dress well for tonight.”

Peach bellini shot from Lance’s mouth. “What!?”

Allura studied her drink, avoiding eye contact. “Looks like I didn’t tell you...”

Shiro came up and placed his hand on Lance’s shoulder. “Like you said, though. There’s no reason you can’t just talk to him since you only see him as a potential friend, right?” He gave a wink.

Teasing from Allura was normal, but hearing it from Shiro burned Lance’s cheeks.

“Yeah. You’re right. Just a couple of guys being bros, a couple of bros being guys. No problem,” Lance said before taking in a deep breath and then chugging the rest of his drink.

Allura laughed gleefully, “That’s the spirit!” She and Shiro toasted once more before they followed suit and downed their drinks. “Now let’s go party!”

“Hells yeah!” cried Lance.

\--

“Oh hells naw,” muttered Lance.

The house party was packed. Bodies mushed together in the living room, grinding up against one another in a sweaty mess. Loud house music blared from a corner, shaking the half-empty red solo cups scattered around any clear surface.

From the kitchen came a roar of cheering from the beer-pong tournament currently underway. Amidst the crowd a few people chanted “Champion” as Shiro aimed for another cup with a broad goofy grin.

Pidge and Hunk came, saw, and left. Hunk stayed for a couple of songs and danced with Allura, dipping her gracefully and earning a few whoops of praise from the group of people circling around them. But all the attention made Hunk uneasy in the end and he gave Allura’s hand to a pretty young girl before disappearing into the throng of people. He eventually found Pidge who was busy yelling at the DJ - cause that’s what a party is _really_ for.

Pidge was offended by the DJ set-up when they realised it was just an unhinged door balanced on two subwoofers where a scrawny undergrad manned his laptop. Pidge had some choice words for the ‘DJ’ when they saw that they were just going through a Spotify playlist.

They texted the group chat that they were going back to Pidge’s to watch bad horror movies - the only kind Hunk could handle - and that they would meet them at Shiro’s later.

Lance was glad his friends were having a good time. Only problem was that they were having fun without him, and now he was trapped in the sweaty throng of slightly drunk people, while trying to avoid Professor Mullet.

Every time more people poured through the main entrance it sent Lance’s blood pressure through the roof. Flume was playing, but Lance couldn’t even enjoy it.

His chest felt tight.

_Fuck_.

He needed to get some air.

Unfortunately, the back door was crammed with people grinding on top of each other and there was no way Lance could push his way through in his current state. His next best option was to hope to god that the upstairs was relatively cleared.

Stepping over a couple sucking faces on the steps, and accidentally photo bombing a group of girls taking a selfie - seriously why are people doing this on the stairs?

He was able to maneuver his way up to the landing where he dashed behind a bend in the hallway. Pressing his back against what could only be assumed was the linen closet, Lance melted onto the ground.

_Safe, finally._

Lance fumbled for his phone and on the third try, damn you alcohol, he unlocked it with a click. The music was only slightly quieter upstairs, but it was enough to calm him down a bit. He opened up messenger and quickly typed out a message to the group.

(12:21am): To “Space Jam” Allura [misogynycrusher], Hunk [TheHunk], Pidge [pidgey], Lance [ASSFUCKER9000], Shiro [Champion]

**Lance** : howsz evryoen doing/.?

_Perfect, don’t let them know you’re freaking out. Just be chill._

**Lance** : bc i am freakign the fcuck out LMAO

_Just to be safe, though._

Lance just stared at his screen for a while, but when no one responded he figured everyone was busy doing their own thing.

“Damnit...”

“You alright?” A voice above him asked.

_God, is that you?_ Lance looked up to come face to face with another source of anxiety.

_Nevermind_. No God here.

“Uh, yeah... sure. I mean this is where people who are perfectly alright go to just chill during a party.” Lance knocked on the linen closet behind him. “I just really like silk sheets,” he added with a serious nod.

“I prefer egyptian cotton, in all honesty,” Keith said with an equally serious voice as he moved to sit down next to Lance.

The only light was coming from downstairs and the crack of the bathroom door down the hall, which Lance was eternally grateful for. His head was swimming and the last thing he needed was some harsh light.

“Any soft sheets are good...” _Is bedding really what you should be talking about now?_ Lance scolded himself. He realised the suggestiveness of the topic and fumbled to quickly change the subject. “I’m surprised you found me here. I didn’t think you were gonna come.”

_Phrasing, Lance._

“Yeah, me neither,” Keith confessed. “But your friend, er - Allura? Makes quite the compelling argument. I stopped by Altea last night to get some marking done and she wouldn’t let me go back to my table until I promised that I’d come to the party.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck and gave a dry chuckle. Lance felt his heart squeeze as he watched Keith. _Just a couple of guys being bros and talking in the dark, take it easy._

“Yep, that sounds like Allura alright.” He laughed. “She once kept following me around until she could find a moment to steal my jacket. She’s...persistent.” Lance chose his words carefully in the end, just in case Allura could hear him.

Keith laughed. “Why? What’d you do to that jacket?”

“Nothing!” he exclaimed, throwing up his hands. “I just have an amazing taste in clothing, especially those with a space theme to them.” Lance added to his point by motioning towards his shirt with the text “I Want to Believe” printed in white on the front with a small cartoon UFO on the bottom. “In her defence, it did have a cute little alien patch on the breast pocket,” he finished.

“Of course.” Keith agreed nodding, his serious demeanor returning to his face.

A gaggle of giggling girls stumbled their way up the stairs and started to squeal in laughter.

“Oh my godddd, Kelly just go I need to pee so bad,” one of them whined.

“Fuck off, it’s not that easy to open doors, okay?”

A third girl made her way around the bend to where the two guys were sitting. Eyeliner was smudged around her eyes, and Lance could smell the vodka radiating off her from where he sat.

“Oh shit! I’m so sorry!” The third girl yelped.

“Adi, get back here! I need to borrow your lipstick again!” one of her friends called.

“Yeah, sorry! I just walked in on some guys about to get it on,” she called back before stumbling to rejoin her friends.

Lance could feel his hands shaking and ran his nails over the palm of his hands to steady the rising panic in his stomach. It’s been some time since his last drink, and it was not sitting with him well. All at once the noise of the music was becoming overbearing once more, and the high-pitched squeals from the bathroom weren’t helping with the situation.

Keith clicked his tongue and pushed himself up from the ground.

“This is why I don’t do the party scene,” he sighed. “I’m going out for a smoke. Lance, wanna come with?”

Hearing his name pulled Lance up from the wave of anxiety flooding over him.

“Yeah, that sounds good to me. The noise and... everything.” He shook his head from saying anything else. It was probably too early to spill out all his issues, considering it’s the first time outside of work that he was walking with Keith. And he was too sober to do so anyways. “I’m over it for tonight.”

Lance used the closet door to help himself up and followed Keith down the stairs. More people had decided that the stairs were a prime location to get acquainted with each other, but the two of them managed to navigate their way down without stepping on anyone. A mass of people still blocked the back door, but Keith unapologetically pushed them out of the way with Lance closely following behind.

Keith was his Moses, parting the red sea of drunk university kids for him.

The crisp fresh summer air hit Lance and brought him back to life, but Keith didn’t stop walking. He seemed determined to find a good quiet spot away from the party, which Lance was appreciative of. The silence though, not so much.

“I’m surprised you knew my name, honestly,” Lance said quietly. Keith stopped to turn around and looked at him like he was an idiot.

“You wear a nametag at work, how could I not?”

“Well there are other places where people wear name tags,” he defended himself. Keith rolled his eyes and turned back to watch where he was going.

Lance looked around at his surroundings, noticed how different the buildings on campus looked at night, and found the deserted sight of it all unnerving. Even the medical building glistened in the streetlights as they walked by.

“They don’t serve good coffee, though. I remember that much,” Keith muttered.

Lance felt a bit of pride swell up; he was going to have to tell Allura that later.

The two of them went up a flight of stairs that lead towards the library, but instead of going towards it, Keith reached up to the low wall that pressed up against the stairs and hauled himself up with a grunt of effort. Lance watched him, but mostly he watched his lower back where his black t-shirt rode up from the climb.

Keith disappeared for a moment before kneeling down and offering a hand towards Lance.

“Need help getting up?”

Lance scoffed, “N-no! What makes you think that?”

“The fact that _I’m_ up here and _you’re_ still down there?” he sneered.

“You won’t be saying that once I get up there!” Lance yelled, grabbing the concrete wall and scrambling to pull himself up.

“Well...no...cause then you’d be up here...” Keith just trailed off when he realised Lance wasn’t listening.

His climb up was far from anything elegant or pretty, but with a lot of grunting, heaving, and promises to visit the gym more than once a year, Lance dragged himself over the wall. He panted as he rolled over on the wet grass where he saw Keith sitting on the edge of the wall on the side. They were on a clearing that sloped up onto a higher point overlooking the campus.

“Huh, I never knew this was here,” Lance said quietly. He was surprised by how peaceful it was; not a single soul passed by below them.

“Yeah, not a lot of people do since it’s a bit of a hassle to get to,” Keith replied, slightly distracted as he patted his pockets down. He pulled out a red lighter and joint with a satisfied hum from his front pocket of his jeans.

_So it was_ that _kind of smoke_ , Lance pieced together.

Keith lit his joint and inhaled deeply. Smoke left his parted lips and Lance was calmed by the familiar smell and the ghosting of smoke. He watched it swirl and fade as Keith took another hit before passing it towards Lance.

It had been a while since he last smoked pot; it reminded him of when he hung around the art kids. Those were weird times...

Smoke filled his lungs and rushed to his head. He was glad he sobered up prior to this; mixing was never fun. He sighed out a plume of grey and passed it back to Keith who was now laying down on the grass.

Lance laid back, joining him. The dew of grass was a bit uncomfortable, but with the summer air, it felt right.

Lance could feel himself calm down and enjoyed looking up at the stars as he took another hit from Keith.

In the meantime, Keith had pulled out his phone and was quietly playing music. Lance recognised it as Modest Mouse, and figured the alternative sounds matched with Keith’s look. Even tonight he was wearing distressed black skinny jeans with a black v-neck; a plaid button-up wrapped around his waist finished the look.

“I’m so glad that this campus is so sheltered from the city,” Keith remarked.

Lance nodded in agreement. “It makes it easier for us astronomy kids to do our labs. In first semester I had to run out each night to mark the passing of the moon. It was weird, but oddly meditative. Helped with the anxiety in first year.” Even now Lance found her cold presence to be oddly warm and soothing.

“Of course you’re a spacehead. How didn’t I guess that earlier?” questioned Keith.

“Who are you calling spacey?!” Lance shot up, anger rising in his voice.

“Dude. I meant a literal space head. Astronomy major,” Keith put his hands up defensively, but not rising from where he laid.

“Oh. Sorry,” Lance murmured before laying back down.

“No harm done, spacehead.”

“Wait...now I can’t tell if you’re calling me spacey or a legit space nerd,” Lance knitted his eyebrows in confusion. “I’m too high for this.” He gasped. “Oh my god I can finally punch space in the face!”

Keith’s voice dropped, visibly upset. “Why would you punch space? It’s so pretty, what has it ever done to you?”

“She’s teasing me. I just know it. I almost failed my midterm because of her and her spacines,” Lance huffed.

“I’m sensing some serious tension between you and space. You sure ‘space’ isn’t just code for an ex-girlfriend?” he asked.

“Nope, no ex’s here. No ladies trying to square up with me here either. Just a very personal bout with space.” Lance gave a deep sigh. “She’s a cruel mistress.”

Keith gave a solemn nod of agreement. “I’d smoke to that.”

They laid in comfortable silence for while, until the opening of “Shake Ya Tail Feather” started to blare from Lance’s ass.

“Shit - sorry, it’s Allura calling.” Lance raised his hips to pull his phone from out of his back pocket. “Princess!”

_“Lance where the fuck are you?”_ Allura asked, her words slightly slurred. _“You haven’t replied to anyone’s texts.”_

Lance pulled his phone away from his ear and saw the notification of - _shit 15 missed messages?_

_“We’re all at Shiro’s right now,”_ Allura continued.  
  
**_“The Champion is back!”_**

Lance could hear Shiro yelling in the background, followed by a loud crash and the voice of reason, their lord and saviour Pidge, calling out for more water.

_“You don’t want to miss this. Hurry your boney ass over here,”_ she said in a tone too serious for the situation.

“Alright, alright, keep your shit together. I’ll be there soon,” he promised.

_“Also did you fuck the TA yet? Everyone is cu-”_

“OKAYBYEALLURASEEYOUSOONBYE!” Lance rushed before hanging up. That woman was gonna be the death of him.

Lance looked back at Keith who was now sitting up and watching him. The anxiety of the earlier situation pushed to resurface once more as Lance made note of how pretty Keith’s face looked under the moonlight.

_It’s just the drugs talking,_ he tried to convince himself. Anyone would look pretty under the moon. _You can’t catch me, gay thoughts_. Thankfully, the pot’s effects did come back to soothe his worries and loosen his filter - is what he told himself after he asked Keith a terribly dumb idea.

“Hey, wanna come back to Shiro’s with me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again as always to moosifers <3 couldn't do this without you.  
> Writing this made me miss campus life lmao I'm sorta looking forward to school starting up again.  
> In the meantime, I'm gonna keep updating! Thank you so much for your kudos and sweet comments <3 they keep me going.
> 
> Also, don't do drugs kiddos. And drink responsibly !!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They were black with little astronauts on them, and they must have been Lance’s next favourite thing to Ikea.

Lance groaned, wincing at the early morning light pouring into the bedroom. They must have forgotten to close the blinds last night. The bright morning sun couldn’t care less how tired the party squad was since it shone directly onto Lance. Bleary-eyed and groggy, he rubbed his face with his hands in attempt to wake himself up.

The summer sun was too much for him this early in the morning, but Lance couldn’t ever sleep in after a night of drinking. This has lead to him sitting in on Monday morning lectures while slightly intoxicated on several occasions, which was more than he could say for Allura who opted for sleeping in and nursing her hangover. Then again, unlike Lance she could actually afford to miss a lecture or two and still be on top of all her classes.

Sitting upright he looked down at the haphazardly thrown sheets and limbs sprawled out. Legs that were far too pale in comparison to his honey coloured skin. Lance followed the trail of limbs up to find Keith drooling on the pillow clutched in his arms next to him.

He could feel his stomach jump into his throat as he looked down to find his shirt gone. Quickly, Lance grabbed at the sheets laying across his lap and pulled up to check if he had lost anything else. Letting out a deep sigh of relief, Lance saw that he not only still had his boxers on, but his jeans as well.

_Thank God._

It was then Lance noticed Allura sleeping soundly to Lance’s right; there was no way he did anything then if Allura was in bed with him too. Unless she was feeling a little bi curious last night and joined in, Lance figured he was safe and wasn’t coming home to Abuela reeking of sex and shame.

 _Abuela would know what happened even if I showered here before going back._ He shuddered at the thought.

Still, being sandwiched between his best friend and the source of his fumbling at work made Lance feel anxious.

He shimmied out of the bed, trying his best not to wake anyone up lest he was ready to feel their early morning wrath. Lance slipped out and tiptoed over Hunk and Pidge who were cuddled up in pile of blankets and pillows on the floor with Shiro who was sleeping next to a bucket of water.

 _Probably Pidge’s idea_ , he figured as he looked over at the bucket.

Bare feet slapped against hardwood and tile as Lance moved into the kitchen. He rummaged around in the cabinets to find Shiro’s stash of coffee. Of course to save time Shiro bought himself a Keurig and had an ungodly amount of caramel flavoured coffee, so much so Lance doubted he’d notice he was a cup of coffee short.

The lifeblood of champions came in all kinds of flavours, Lance mused as he picked one up and turned the coffee maker on. With a hum the machine came to life and poured out the warm liquid. The scent alone was enough to wake the poor college student up at last.  

After burning his tongue with the hot brew, too impatient to wait for it to cool and desperate to wash the taste of old alcohol off his tongue, Lance surveyed the room’s destruction.

Bottles were scattered about with various levels of alcohol left in them, some tipped over leaving sticky puddles of regret. At some point it looked like they made bowls of popcorn, seeing as how a stale kernel was now stuck under Lance’s foot. _Gross._ But he wasn’t sure if it was made before or after they ordered a large box of pizza. Either way, not a crumb was left, much to Lance’s disappointment. Cold morning pizza was always the best.

Unfortunately the smell of it all was becoming too overwhelming. Even the sweet smell of caramel coffee couldn’t mask the reek.

Tiptoeing back around the cuddle pile on the floor, Lance quietly made his way to the far window where he opened up the larger panel so he could slip outside onto the fire escape. It was narrow, but the metal balcony had enough room for a couple of chairs and a table that of which Lance instantly recognised to be from Ikea. Looking at it now, Lance noticed that he spent way too much time looking at the Ikea catalogue if he could pick out its furniture this easily. He just really liked Ikea.

Lance sat down in one of the chairs and placed his mug down with a soft clatter. He wasn’t sure what to do while he waited for his friends to wake up. Not like he could text anyone, considering everyone he knew is either on Shiro’s floor or on his bed. He also really wanted to know what happened to his shirt last night, and the only people he could ask were Hunk and Pidge since they were probably sober for a majority - if not all - of the night. And more importantly, how did he end up in bed shirtless with Keith?

“Science doesn’t have all the answers,” he said to himself.

“Answers to what?”

Lance turned to see Keith poking his head through the open window, trying to figure out how to climb through onto the fire escape with minimal struggling. Lance was surprised to see him awake so early, and seeing him all disheveled was like a gift.

 _If only I was the reason that his hair was all messed up_ , he thought. _Wait. No! Stop that,_ he scolded himself.

“Where my shirt went-” Lance stopped, mouth gaping once Keith got through the window.

Keith was raising his arms above his head, stretching in front of the morning light pouring in, and oblivious to Lance marvelling at the bare skin peeking out from where his shirt lifted up. But the sliver of skin forced Lance’s eyes to trail down to his lower body where he was stretching in all his glory in just his boxer briefs.  

They were black with little astronauts on them, and they must have been Lance’s next favourite thing to Ikea.

“I don’t have the answer to that,” Keith responded, dropping his arms and sitting down in the other chair. “Otherwise I’d know where my jeans were,” he continued, slightly irritated.

Lance shook his head to clear it from the daze of - wow that was a lot of skin. “Well you’re not science, so I wouldn’t expect you to know, and yes it is. Do you want some?”

Keith gave a grunt and took a drink from Lance’s mug.

Lance was about to offer a fresh cup instead, but thought better of it. Looks like sharing things amongst themselves was the new thing He tried to rationalise it as though it were no different from sharing drinks with anyone else in the group. Still, when Keith put the cup down for Lance to have his drink back he took a moment to stare at the lip mark left on it before turning around to have another sip.

“I really needed to get the taste of tequila out of my mouth,” Keith mused licking his lips. Lance chuckled as he watched the other male run his hands through his hair, only to pull away from it with disgust. “And I need to get- what is grass doing in my hair?” he grumbled perplexed.

Lance flushed at the memory of last night when he recalled lying beside Keith in the grass. “Stargazing,” Lance mumbled into his cup in response before taking another sip of coffee, avoiding eye contact.

Keith gave an appreciative nod. “Right, that would do it. Things are starting to make sense, somewhat.” He yawned and smacked his lips. “Still don’t remember everything, though.”

“If Allura gave you tequila last night then yeah I’m not surprised,”  Lance mused before putting the cup down which Keith quickly picked up for himself.

“She really likes to party, that I do remember.”

Lance laughed. “You’re just lucky Shiro didn’t make you do shots of 151.”

“Who does shots of rum?” bewilderment filled Keith’s voice.

“Frat boys,” Lance responded as if to answer any questions left regarding Shiro’s actions.

“That is true.” Keith passed the mug back to Lance with a smirk. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s the reason why I can’t find my pants.”

Lance scoffed, “Pants are overrated either way.”

“Oh? Then I guess you wouldn’t know where they went?”

Coffee went down the wrong pipe as Lance sputtered and clutched at his chest. Keith really was going to be the death of him. “How-” he coughed, “dare you question my honour!” he finally choked out.

Keith spread his hands before him apologetically. “Sorry, my good sir, I didn’t mean to bite my thumb at thee.”

“Augh gross. What is this Shakespearean BS? It’s too damn early to revisit grade eleven English,” Lance groaned. But he was surprised to hear Keith talk to him so casually, and for him to form _actual words_ in response. This was one of the few times he was grateful for having an anxiety attack and leaving a party early. The rest of the night gave the two of them a good opportunity to spend more than a few minutes across a cash register to talk. Even if it did include lame Romeo and Juliet references.  

“I meant no quarrel, sir,” Keith responded calmly.

“Dost thou wanna fucking go?”

“I can’t! I don’t know where my pants are!” Keith exclaimed, throwing his arms up dramatically.

Lance rolled his eyes. “Do you want me to help?”

“I think it would be more appropriate for you to lurk around at your friend’s looking for something rather than myself. I don’t want to wake someone up by accident; it’d be a pretty awkward sight.”

Keith turned back to look through the window to see the rest of Lance’s group still fast asleep. Allura had taken the liberty to sprawl across the now empty bed, limbs and blankets thrown about whichever way.

 _More awkward than sitting out on Shiro’s balcony half naked?_ Lance puzzled. Still, if Keith was ready to leave he had no business trying to keep him captive in his friend’s apartment any longer.

“Right, fair enough. I’ll help you find them.” Lance left the empty mug on the table and got up to move back into the living room through the window. He couldn’t handle the thought of watching Keith’s ass try to shimmy through the opening so he pushed on ahead before Keith could go in first.

Lance cautiously stepped around his friends, looking about for their missing clothes. He had to stifle a shrill screech when he started to crawl around the room and placed his hand on a puddle of something bright and sticky. Hunk muttered something and turned over in his sleep while Lance sat on his knees, flailing his hand in disgust. _Gotta stay quiet, but this is so disgusting._ After a resigned sigh, he kept on shuffling about on all fours trying to scope out their clothes.

“Found them!” Keith whispered.

“Thank God,” Lance responded. Forgetting where he was, though, he tried to get up and hit his head against the bottom of a table, shaking a few bottles and swearing in quiet frustration. He rubbed his head before crawling out from underneath to see Keith standing by the bed. Pulling a few blankets from off the floor, he found both their clothes hidden underneath a bed sheet.  

“Smooth,” Keith teased before picking up both of their things and throwing Lance his shirt. He caught it and gave it a squeeze.

“Finally, you’re home safe and sound,” Lance said to it, beaming. Keith was struggling to shimmy into his jeans, doing the small skinny jean wriggle to slide the fabric over his thighs and hips. Lance flushed, catching himself staring once more at Keith’s pale skin. He quickly focused back onto putting his own shirt back on; the warmth of the fabric over his cold chest was welcomed.  

Keith found his plaid shirt as well and slid it over his arms instead of opting for wrapping it around his waist this time. He rolled up his sleeves carefully in even folds until he was content and moved into the bathroom to check his appearance. Still unhappy with his hair, he ruffled it until it looked decent enough.

In the meantime, Lance gathered himself off the floor and threw the pile of sheets that sat on the floor onto Allura. She gave an appreciative murmur before burying her face into them.

“Right, I guess I should get going. I still have a shit ton of papers to mark,” Keith called after returning from the bathroom and moved towards the front door with Lance following behind.

“Oh, yeah. You have all your things then?” Lance asked, trying to hide the disappointment in his voice. He didn’t expect him to have stayed as long as he did anyways, but Lance was hoping Keith would have waited until the others woke up. Then again, he figured that wasn’t going to happen any time soon.

Keith patted down his pockets and pulled out his phone and keys. “Yeah, looks like it.”

“Good, right on. Uhm... Thanks for coming,” Lance gave a weak smile as he rubbed his hand against his other arm nervously.

“Yeah, it was fun.”

“So yeah...”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah...”

“I’m... gonna go now,” Keith jerked a thumb at the door.

“Right, sorry,” Lance unlocked the door and opened it for Keith. “Later.”

Keith gave a small wave, “Later.”

Lance closed the door behind him and hit his head against the grey door with a thud. _Smooth_.

“Keith and Lance, sitting in a tree~” Pidge sang from where they sat on the floor.

“Kissing and doing junk and things.” Hunk was awake now too and finished Pidge’s teasing jingle.

Lance turned around, heat flaring up on his skin and glared at the peanut gallery gathering on the floor.

“What the hell guys I thought you were asleep!” he cried.

“Kinda hard to when you’re knocking into shit cause you can’t keep your eyes off his ass. Though I will admit, I can’t blame you,” Shiro teased. Lance huffed in disapproval which caused the others to laugh on his behalf.

A series of rings came from everyone’s phone soon after. Lance pulled his from his pocket to see: ‘Allura [misogynycrusher] has changed the group chat from “Space Jam” to “Get Lance Laid!!!”’ flash on his phone screen.

“Goddamn it!” Lance cursed at the pile of blankets on the bed. The chorus of laughter erupted once more once everyone saw the name change.

A tanned arm lazily rose to the air. “Shhh, children. Mama’s still hungover,” she cried out meekly, dropping her arm with a muffled thump.

“Yet she still manages to be a bitch,” Lance sneered.

“Only because I love you,” came a muted reply.

“Only one cure for a hangover,” Hunk stated. “Greasy breakfast.” He waggled his eyebrows at the proposal. “Bacon, eggs, and french toast will set everyone right.”

“And coffee,” Shiro added.

“And coffee, of course.”

Allura fell back asleep without another word while the other four split up into two groups; one group tackled the mess that was the apartment while the other got food ready. Shiro and Pidge picked up the scattered bottles, pouring out the remnants into the toilet while trying hard to not gag at the smell.

Next day alcohol reeked and would make anyone recoil at the prospect of tossing out the empties from the night before, but if they didn’t do it now they knew it would only get worse. Shiro also took the liberty to open up the rest of the windows, letting a warm breeze roll through the place and clear out the leftover stink.

Soon it was replaced by the smell of fried meat and vanilla, an odd combination that set stomachs rumbling throughout the group. Lance set up plates, cutlery, and mugs onto the table, replacing all the now cleared bottles of booze with real sustenance. As food began to pile onto the table, Allura managed to drag herself out of her blanket coffin and shuffle over to join everyone for breakfast.

“Voilà! Bon appétit, everyone,” Hunk invited with a flourish of hands to show off the mountains of food. Lance came up from behind to drop down onto the table a pitcher of hot coffee, orange juice, and maple syrup.

“I think I died in my sleep,” Allura mumbled still visibly groggy and hungover. Shiro poured her a cup of coffee which she took with a quiet thanks and pressed close against her chest. “So warm...”

Plates were passed around as everyone loaded up their own with warm food.

Pidge and Hunk ended up bringing their PJs with them the day previous, Lance noticed with a pang of envy. Waking in last night’s clothes was never fun, but at least he and Allura were suffering together. Shiro had the sweet luxury of being able to change whenever, but he too was sitting in clothes from last night. He was probably waiting to shower first before putting on anything clean, Lance figured.

“So how was the party?” Pidge asked, their tone suggestive.

“Yeah, I saw you dipped at one point,” Allura gave a wink over her cup of coffee. “Busy getting some private lessons from Professor English, hm?”

Lance flushed. “We just went out for a smoke! The party was too loud and crowded in the end,” he defended.

“Ah, that’s true. No one likes being walked in on at a big party.” Sympathy flooded Allura’s voice.

“We weren’t doing anything! We went out for a smoke, got high, and did some stargazing around campus.”

“Sounds pretty romantic to me,” Pidge said. “Minus the weed. That just sounds tacky.”

“We were only talking,” Lance argued.

“Talking and flirting are two very different things.” Shiro reached over for another pile of toast to soak up the egg running across his plate before continuing. “Though I’m sure your lessons with Keith didn’t actually revolve around the mechanics of the English language.”

“This is abuse!” Lance cried out.

“No, this is an intervention, Lance.” Allura retorted. “I saw the way you were staring at him when he was busy trying to shimmy into those jeans. He has an ass so firm you could bounce a dime off of it, so I don’t blame you.”

“I thought you were a lesbian,” Lance questioned.

“I may be gay, but I’m not blind. Unlike you, pumpkin,” she said slowly with emphasis.

“Look, if you’re still persistent on hiding your boner for Keith and just being friends, then invite him to our trip to the beach house during break,” Hunk offered. His parents had a beach house just an hour outside of the city and offered it to Hunk to use during reading week. The group had planned on going since winter vacation, but the cold weather would have spoiled the fun on the waterfront and they decided to postpone the endeavor until the warmer seasons rolled around.

“I doubt he’d be up for a trip with a group of people he barely knows,” Lance countered.

“He stuck around last night,” Pidge reminded him. “Why wouldn’t he be up for a calmer event next? I mean you guys got pretty wild last night, so I’m sure he’d accept the beach house.”

Lance groaned, “Oh god, what happened last night?”

Pidge gave a smirk. “Oh you’ll see. I have it all documented.”

Next was Shiro’s turn to blanche. “I don’t look forward to seeing those. But I’m on Hunk and Pidge’s side. Just invite Keith up with us, there’s no harm in doing that.”

“And that way we can plot on exposing your hidden desires on a romantic trip to the beach,” Allura mused.

“Wonderful,” Lance grumbled before stuffing his mouth full with bacon, leaving everyone else to continue chattering about. Allura was already plotting ridiculous ways to set the two up in compromising situations, while Pidge helped point out the flaws and complications in her plans, suggesting different options.  

In the meantime Lance felt a buzz in his pocket and put down his cutlery with a clatter before pulling out his phone under the table. He was surprised to see a message from Keith. He felt his heart squeeze; they must have exchanged numbers at some point in the night. It was pathetic how excited Lance was to see Keith message him, but it also gave him a reason to be excited for his next shift at Altea.  
  
**Keith:** _When do you work this week?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aughhhh Thank you all for sticking around! Your sweet words always bring me so much happiness. I'll always do a little dance when I see those comments or kudos.  
> Again, moosifers is my sweet prince for being my beta reader <3  
> akkichi, you're a doll I love you so much I hope you're happy with this haha.  
> Updates look like they'll be weekly now since school is starting up soon and I need to prep for that mess.  
> Thank you for your patience and support~!
> 
> If anyone was wondering what underwear Keith was wearing, you can actually buy those boxers at american eagle  
> https://www.ae.com/men-aeo-moon-man-6-classic-trunk-black/web/s-prod/0235_2869_001?cm=sCA-cCAD&catId=cat4230029  
> lmao


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two hours alone with Keith in the car; no meddling, no scheming, no Pidge showing more videos of Lance grinding against a lamp while drunk.

“Do I go with the small penguin print or stripes?” Lance studied the the swim trunks splayed out on his bed, unable to decide which pair to pack with him. Their beach trip was coming up in a few days, but being the excited little kid that he was, Lance had to make sure to pack a few days in advance so he didn’t forget anything.

Everyone was looking forward to their trip, rushing to finish all their assignments before reading week started so they could just spend their time dicking around and not stressing out to finish an essay. Well everyone except Lance. He figured he’d just work on it when he got back, focusing more on the more pressing question of which swim trunks to take?

“Which one do you think, Duchess?”

A grey tabby with a white belly and paws laid on his bed and yawned at Lance’s question. She nuzzled her pink nose further between her paws and began purring.

“Please, I need a woman’s opinion on this one,” he begged. Lance got Duchess as a birthday present when he was younger and during his Aristocat phase. He would beg to play the VHS over and over every day until the VHS tape tore from use, but at that point he could recite every line from the movie and sing along with every song. So naturally when Papa came home with a tiny bundle of fluff on his birthday, Lance immediately named her Duchess. She was the light of his life and he even brought her along when he moved to his Abuela’s for University. He still found the movie a security blanket of sorts for him, but Netflix made it easier to sate his addiction.

The cat stirred and stretched before padding over towards his clothes. She sniffed at them both and then purring sat down between the two choices.

“You’re right, I should bring both just in case.” He gave her a kiss on top of her head before snatching away the trunks before she could shed all over them. “What would I do without you?” She swished her tail across the bed, purring in agreement.

Lance packed the trunks in with the rest of his belongings into the backpack sitting on a his chair with a satisfied hum. All that was left was to lay awake two nights in a row unable to fall asleep due to anxiety and suffer through lectures. What a joy.

The sounds of his phone vibrating off of his desk made Lance jump. Part of him was hoping to see Keith’s name flash across his screen, but the crisp lettering of “Get Lance Laid!!!” mocked him instead.

**Allura** : Double checking, Keith is coming, yes?

**Pidge:** If Lance is any good I would think so :^O

**Shiro** : gross.

**Hunk** : not on my parent’s sheets please :(

**Lance** : WOW OKAY DEF NOT NECESSARY RN KTNX.  
But yes he is u knew that already

**Allura** : ‘Kay slight problem then. The only free car I can take from the house fits five people, but with everyone’s stuff it’ll only fit four.

**Lance** : do u want me to drive too then :?

**Allura** : If you wouldn’t mind. But it means someone’s gonna have to go with you.

**Hunk** : Im with Allura

**Shiro** : Same.

**Pidge** : SHIUTGUN

**Pidge** : *shotgun.

**Lance** : subtle you guys...real subtle.

**Allura** : :) You know him better than all of us. It only makes sense.

Lance groaned at his phone, but his lips tugged into a reluctant smile. Two hours alone with Keith in the car; no meddling, no scheming, no Pidge showing more videos of Lance grinding against a lamp while drunk. But it also mean no buffers or familiar banter to fill in the awkward silences. The pit in his stomach sunk further down into his system as excitement and anxiety sloshed about.

The two of them have been texting from time to time, but no conversation they had matched the length of their talks from the party. Allura had to threaten Lance to keep him seated at work when Keith came in for coffee to prolong their conversations as much as possible. When a new client came in earlier today she had to mouth “sit down or I will end you” to keep him grounded in his seat so he couldn’t use them as an excuse to not talk with the TA.

Keith came in during his shifts at Altea frequently. He claimed that Lance was the only one who can make his orders right when he came in to do work. Allura, though slightly offended at the remark, teased Lance afterwards that it was because Keith liked how he used his hands which left Lance too flustered to help the next customer. Not that he didn’t try, it was just that when Lance tried to get up from their break table he tripped and almost flat on his face. To which Allura had to steady herself from laughter and take over the next order. At this rate she was going to steal Lance’s job from him.

However, at least Lance knew he could hold a conversation with Keith. More or less.

Lance: fine ill text him and ask if thats ok

Exiting out of the group chat he scrolled down to find Keith’s contact. He took a deep breath, scolding himself for overreacting to just a simple question. It wasn’t like he was calling him to ask either, just a simple text.

**Lance** : hey! Change of plans. Would you be okay with driving w/ me? Allura cant fit everyone and all our bags into the car.

He tapped his nails against the back of his phone, waiting for his response. Just as he was about to put his phone down Lance felt it go off.

**Keith** : Sure. I’ll send you the address, just let me know what time you’re all thinking of leaving at.

Lance gasped and quickly opened up the group chat

**Lance** : HE SAID YES!!!!

**Allura** : Am I your maid of honour?

**Hunk** : at least buy him dinner first before proposing, dude

**Lance** : fuck u guys i did the thing okay. Now i need to make a kick ass road trip mix...

**Shiro** : Now I’m really glad that I’m not in the car with Lance.

**Lance** : triggered

Switching back to Keith’s conversation screen, Lance quickly replied with ‘thanks and totes’ before bouncing from foot to foot.

It’s gonna be a couple of guys being bros, a couple of bros being guys with Snoop Dogg and Britney Spears to guide their way to the beach.

Oh, he’s gonna need to put Starships onto that mix as well.

\--

Abuela didn’t let Lance leave before signing a document swearing he wouldn’t do anything stupid - she was a traditionalist in that sense. But it was only because she loved him so much that she didn’t want to find his dead body washed up on the beach after dying from some stupid stunt.

Lance protested that he’d be a perfect guest at Hunk’s, but she blocked his way out the front door armed with a wooden spoon until he signed the paper. The fact that it was written on floral notary softened the severity of the situation.

Signed and sealed with a kiss on the cheek goodbye, Lance was finally on his way to Keith’s in his old Ford Focus. The plan was, according to Hunk, retrieve the package safely and then rejoin the rest of the squad at a Starbucks to gas up at the edge of the city and then be on their way to the beach.

**Lance** : aye aye captain 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN ABOUT THIS. But while working on chapters I had to move for school, and then work became a huge stress, and then school itself started up. So that means yes I will be updating, albeit more slowly though as I focus on school work more and my mental health. Thank-you for everyone who stuck around. Yes this is a filler chapter that's been sitting in my documents cause I needed to divide this big chunk of a segment into smaller bits. Don't kill me for a bit of filler, though. Gotta do what I gotta do. <3 Until next update !


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> part 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO AO3 Didn't actually post the whole chapter and I goofed and didn't see it until...days...later... so here's the rest of it. I was just going to update chapter 5 and edit it, but I'm not sure if people would be notified of it, so I'm just gonna post the second half. I'm so sorry for the mix-up. ayyylmao. At least it's bitesized? Still. smh @ me. Thanks for sticking around~! <3

It was a bit of a drive to Keith’s, which was surprising considering the time it must take to get to the university from there. Then as he was pulling into his neighbourhood, Lance realised it was probably because of how nice it was in this area. Old homes lined the streets, each with their own little gardens and ornaments. The people who lived here were clearly proud of their homes. Spires adorned the rooftops with ornaments. Even the awnings were decorated with woodcarvings. 

Bikes sat on porches and in the alleyways between the homes. He could see flashes of colour on the walls, but from what Lance could see all the graffiti was done with purpose and meaning, and not just meaningless white tags. They were genuine high quality street art. If it meant a slightly longer commute to school to be able to live here, Lance would do so it in a heartbeat as well. 

He pulled into the driveway where he saw Keith sitting on the front steps with a bag slung over his shoulder. Lance gave a small wave from the car before shifting it into park and turning off the engine. He parked it beside a black and red motorcycle, which Lance could only assume belonged to Keith. 

The more he found out about the TA the more intimidated Lance became by him. He was chill, smart, and screamed cool hipster; he could recite Shakespearean quotes as if it were nothing. And here he was joining Lance’s group of nerds. His friends were gifts, but Lance himself was an uncoordinated fumbling mess; how Keith was still talking to him was a mystery. 

As Keith walked over towards the small four-door Lance stepped out of the car so he could help Keith put his bag in the back. 

“I’m good, don’t worry about it,” Keith said as joined Lance by the trunk of the car.

Lance gave a bark of laughter, “You might be, but the back isn’t.” Opening the trunk he revealed bags smooshed between inflatable pool toys. “It’s a delicate game of Tetris here,” he stated. 

Keith gave a small hum as he sized up the contents of the back, adjusting the strap across his shoulders in the process. “Is that an inflatable duck?” he asked, squinting at the yellow plastic form sandwiched between groceries and Lance’s things. 

“Inflatable duck inner tube,” he corrected matter-of-factly. 

“So they ran out of flamingos, then?” Keith teased, poking the deflated bird.

“Actually I got the last one, it’s just still in the box though.”

“Ah of course. Did you have to wrestle it out from under a kid to get it?”

Lance scoffed at the idea. “As if I would sink so low to wrestle a kid for an inner tube. It was a fair game of rock-paper-scissors and clearly,” he paused to point out the bright hot pink box, “I won fair and square.” 

Keith nodded his head slowly. “As one does.”

“Hey, you don’t have to use it. But when I’m floating all my stress away as I ride a bright pink flamingo on the waves with a cold bev, we’ll see who’s wrestling who for flamingos,” Lance defended. 

Keith pushed a few bags further back into the Focus so he could place his own down at last. “Is that a challenge, then?” he posed. Keith moved back a step to let Lance close the trunk and stared down Lance.

“Oh, you’re on.”

“Bring it, twinkletoes.”

Lance gasped. “Twinkletoes?” The pair of them walked back to their respective seats up front as Keith continued.

“Yeah. You dance around at work all the time. So. Twinkletoes.”

Lance huffed at that as he got into the car. “Isn’t that an old term for a gay guy?” 

“Yeah it can apply to both.” Keith fastened his belt with a click and shifted into a comfortable position in his seat. “Doesn’t it apply to both now?”

Lance flushed and fumbled with his keys as he struggled to start the ignition. “Who knows,” he mumbled. Keith gave a quiet “hm” in response, not asking him to clarify to which Lance was grateful for. As they were pulling out of the driveway, Lance’s phone connected to the stereo and Flume’s ‘say it’ started to blare. 

They were on their way to the beach.

They met up with Allura’s car at the Starbucks, giving everyone a chance to get out and stretch their legs. Hunk meanwhile was explaining to Lance how to get to the beach house, and in the end just suggested to stick close to Allura. He warned Lance to refrain from trying to go down any side roads to beat everyone else to the house. 

The main road out of the city towards the beach was just a long stretch of asphalt with few chances of taking a wrong turn, but still Hunk felt it was important to enforce the idea. God forbid they became responsible for Lance’s disappearance. Not only will his Abuela find them all and beat them, but the University would be on their ass for losing a member of their staff. 

Once Lance agreed to remain on the main road and the rest of the group returned with their drinks everyone piled back into their respective cars. Before Allura could move her car, Lance drove up beside her on Pidge’s side in the parking lot and rolled his windows down. Confused, she rolled her passenger’s window to see what Lance had to say, only to be met with “Starships” blasting from his radio. 

“Let’s go to the beach, each! Let’s go get away!” he yelled along. Beside him Keith held his head in his hands, in physical pain over the music choice. Allura, though, laughed.

“Then let’s get a move on!”

Leaving the city initially was met with bumper-to-bumper traffic, but after reaching the outskirts it was smooth sailing, except for the literal bumps in the chewed up road. Keith kept his chin resting on his hand as he watched the rows of cornfields whip past them silent for most of the ride until he let out an exasperated sigh with as the music changed. 

“You really like pop, don't you?” he asked, scrutinising the car radio. 

“And you really don’t?” Lance countered, turning the volume down slightly. 

Keith hummed softly. “Not really. I’ll admit it's catchy, but it’s not my musical preference.” 

“Not even Madonna?” Lance asked bewildered. Keith shook his head in response. “Then what do you listen to?” 

“Mostly alternative I suppose.”

Lance scoffed. “Hipster.” 

Keith laughed. “You say that like it's a problem.”

Scrunching up his face, Lance thought whether it actually was a problem. “I guess it's not.” 

They fell back into comfortable silence after that as Keith pulled out the book he brought up to the front with him during their pit stop and began to leaf through the pages. 

“You can play your music on our way back, if you want,” Lance offered before turning his music back up. 

Keith smiled into his book. “Deal.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance: i hate u guys

“Last one to the beach is a rotten egg!” Lance yelled, bolting down the bank. Upon their arrival, Hunk gave a quick rundown of the beach house, explaining the layout of the property, but the only thing Lance picked up on was ‘direct access to the beach’. So, naturally he went straight for his beach essentials and made a beeline to the shore, not even bothering to bring his things inside the house first. Now, it would be one thing for one of the group members to run headfirst down a scalding hot sandy slope, but of course someone had to follow the idiot down too.

“That doesn't even make sense!” Keith cried at first, rolling his eyes. But not wanting to let Lance be the first one to enjoy the summer waves he kicked off his sandals and followed suit, chasing the manchild down.

“Wait, guys!” Hunk cried after them, but his efforts were wasted. “I wanna go too,” he trailed off sadly. 

Pidge moved over to where he was standing to put a hand on his arm. “Let’s bring everything inside first and get unpacked.”

The voice of reason followed. “We can spend the evening on the beach after we’ve calmly unpacked,” Shiro added. 

Meanwhile, Lance hopped foot to foot as white sand burned between his toes. In his efforts to keep cool, Keith had taken the opportunity to speed past. 

Lance cried in outrage, to which Keith responded by laughing as he slowed down into the lapping water, chest heaving. 

“Guess you’re the rotten egg,” he teased. 

Not able to stand being the only one not in the water - he wasn’t counting the wet towels inside the house in this endeavor - he barreled down faster towards the water. _ Wait, would they be... dry wet towels then? If they’re inside and not in the water either? Or would ‘wet towel’ still be appropriate? This is too much thinking on reading week. _ But all thoughts cut off when Lance realised he forgot to slow down as he approached the water.

He felt a sharp dull pain as limbs tangled and “oh shits” tumbled out between the two boys, and then Lance felt the icy chill of the water shoot up through his whole body. Water sputtered out from every orifice of his face as Lance shook the water from his eyes, resurfacing from the waters and trying to regain his vision.  

At first Lance thought he landed on some rocks, but no. Instead just inches away from his face was the half-drowned TA glaring daggers at him. Or at least Keith was trying to through the mop of hair that was plastered to his face. It would have looked insanely hot if it wasn’t so terribly cold in the water, and Keith didn’t look so upset. Lance was grateful that Allura wasn’t around to see him in such a compromising position. They were lucky enough though to be close to shore with only a few inches of water coming up on them. Still, people have managed to drown in less.

“I didn’t think mermaids came in plaid-print scales,” Lance jeered, still holding himself over Keith. 

Keith narrowed his eyes, smirking. The look sent butterflies shooting up from Lance’s stomach and into his throat. Only now did he realise how pretty Keith looked. No one was allowed to look that menacing and attractive at the same time - more so after half drowning while waves splashed up against his face. The thought was replaced by fear as Lance felt his body physically lurch as Keith kicked his legs from beneath him. Before he could faceplant into the water though, Lance somehow ended up on his back, the wind knocked out of him with a splash. 

“And I didn’t think garbage islands got so close to shore,” Keith teased back, now looking down at Lance as the waves halfheartedly tried to pull them further into the waters.    
  
Lance coughed, trying to catch his breath. Water dripped down from the other boy’s hair and onto his face. He could feel heat creep up his face despite the water’s cooler temperature. He tried to look away, trying not to keep eye contact. 

_ How could he literally be dripping with good looks? That’s  _ my _ thing, _ Lance thought, almost bitterly. There was a more pressing issue at hand now that he realised it, though, and that was Keith pressing down onto his hands. Lance’s wrists were pinned up above his head, more submerged than the rest of him. He tried to pull away, but the weight of Keith on his hips on his was making it difficult to move. 

_ Oh God don’t think about his hips... what would Abuela think. Oh that works. Think of Abuela! Her hips could crush a man’s skull, and not in a good way. Oh god now I’m thinking about Abuela. Abort. Mission failed. Houston we’re kinkshaming. _

“You’re one to talk, getting all up and personal on trash heaps,” he snapped back.  _ Wow...you do realise you just insulted yourself with that one. And being mean to someone is not something Abuela would approve of. Then again Abuel wouldn’t approve of you being some boy’s surfboard... _ His thoughts then trailed off into Beyonce lyrics until water shooting up his nose tore him away from his inner ramblings. 

Lance sputtered water as he brought his head back up, coughing up more water. “D-dude what the hell!” he yelled. Keith was laughing all the while, holding onto his stomach to control himself. Lance took the opportunity to then push him off and back into the water where laughter was quickly replaced with a string of choice words. 

They continued to wrestle in the waters, and a few more times someone’s head dipped back under the currents. Eventually, the two of them dragged themselves back onto the sandy shore, Lance choosing a more literal approach to that task by crawling through the sand on all fours. He flopped onto the bank with an audible grunt, chest heaving. Keith followed suit, walking out of the waters in a drunken bootleg version of Baywatch sort of way. 

“That’s....eight....for...me...” Keith gasped between breaths. The two of them laid splayed out on the sand. Lance was pushing his hands into the sand, playing with the grains spilling through his fingers. 

“Bull....shit....I....had you....that....round....”

“Wanna fucking go?” Keith tried to lift his head to look at Lance challengingly, but the weariness made it look more like he was a turtle stuck on its back.

Lance made an effort to throw some of the sand in his hand at Keith, but he just managed to get most of it on his thoroughly soaked t-shirt where it slowly turned muddy. 

“Seven for me now,” Lance emphasised by dropping his hand back into the sand with a dull thud. 

“Slander. I’ll kick your ass for that.”

“Try me, pretty boy.”

“Who are you calling pretty boy? And I just did! Multiple times!”

“Now, now, children. Play nice,” a voice cooed as shadows fell upon the two boys. Lance craned his neck back, burying more sand into his hair in the process. Allura towered above them with the rest of the crew lined up next to her, like some cheesy boyband from the 90s. “You won’t be doing any fighting, laying there like the pair of beached whales you are.”

“And you look sweeter than the morning sun,” Lance smirked, appreciating the white one piece Allura was sporting, along with a big floppy hat. 

She kicked sand into his face.

“That was weak and you know it,” she scoffed, walking towards a clear spot on the beach to lay her towel down. 

Shiro came around and offered a hand to both of the beached boys. “Did you two go swimming fully clothed?” He asked as he heaved them both up onto their feet.

_ I forget how strong Shiro is... he lifted us both without effort. No wonder he can drink so much _ , Lance thought, slightly gawking at Shiro’s arms. 

Keith luckily stepped in while Lance struggled to process his friend’s...everything. “More drowning than swimming, actually.”

Shiro shook his head. “Go get your stuff from the car and then come back in trunks.”

“Yes, Dad,” Lance groaned, rolling his eyes. 

“Hey! Don’t give your father that tone!” Allura yelled from her squatting site. From what Lance could see, she had Hunk digging a hole for the umbrella, and Pidge was helping with unrolling blankets and towels down. Hunk had his trunks on, and Pidge was rocking a wetsuit that just covered their thighs and up to their elbows. 

“But mooooom,” he whined, adding a pout and a small stomp of his foot for emphasis.

Keith laughed at the exchange of banter.

“No buts, go to your room!” 

“But, I don’t know where that even is,” he realised. 

“It’s the only room that’s open, honey. You and Keith have to share since the rest are taken.” Allura stretched as she laid down onto the towel, still not looking at the boys, too busy rummaging through her bag to give them the time of day. 

Lance blanched at that. “What!?”   
  
“Shhhh, no more talking. Mommy’s drinking.” Lance gaped at Allura, also questioned where she got that drink from. Shiro just gave him a knowing wink and left the two boys, joining the rest of the group.

_ I’ve been betrayed. Hurt. My good name sullied. How. How dare.... Scheming lesbian....Love that lesbian though. Fuck. She even got Shiro to wingman me, the audacity. I’m done. I’m dead. Deceased. Mutilated. Ostraci- _

“Well, let’s go get our things, then,” Keith said, heading up the sandy slope back towards the car. 

“What?” 

“Unless you rather stand around in sopping wet clothes, we should grab our things and change, yeah?” Keith asked, puzzled. “Unless you swallowed too much water and didn’t get that.”

He gasped, bringing a hand to his chest dramatically. “I will have you know I did no such thing!”  
  
“Right, cause you prefer to spit?” Keith smirked, turning around just to make his point clear at Lance who was too busy choking to give an actual response. “Aw, you’re shy,” he prodded.

“Oh my God! Stop that!” he squealed, in the proudest, manliest voice he could muster.

“Oh yeah? Make me.”

Lance lunged at Keith, scrambling up the slope in a desperate attempt to put an end to the teasing, swearing all the while.

\-- 

**Lance** : i hate u guys

**Pidge** : Thought you would appreciate staying in the same room :^)

**Hunk** : Please...dont ruin my parent’s sheets :(

**Lance** : !!!! I caNT BELIEVE U 2 WERE THE ONES BEHIND THIS. also. Hunk. WOW. wow. Real mature.

**Lance** : i thought we were friends :’(((((((((((((((((((((

**Allura** : Don’t mess this up, kid. They’re doing you a favour.

**Hunk** : Dont mess them up*

**Pidge** : gross :^(

**Lance** : wait then what kind of room does everyone else have?

**Hunk** : Well I took my room. Pidge took my sister’s.   
  
**Pidge** : Its v cute

**Allura** : I took one of the spare rooms, and so did Shiro. 

**Hunk** : So that just left the master bedroom to share. 

Lance groaned. That would explain why he was currently laying on a queen sized bed with his and Keith’s luggage scattered around the floor. He had already changed into his for-now dry swim trunks - today was the day for the penguin print to come out - and now waited for Keith to finish up in the washroom. 

The ensuite to be more exact. 

That meant he could hear Keith rummage around in his bags, crystal clear. 

...

Lance wanted to cry. It was genius, he had to admit, and also partly his own fault for bolting down towards the beach without calling dibs on a bedroom first. However, this meant he had to share, not only a room with Keith, but also a bed. Not like it’s the first time, though, he had to remind himself. Except this time there’s no alcohol to use as an excuse or buffer - this will be a fully consensual, bed and board experience.

_ Unless Keith doesn’t consent!!!! I just have to ask. Please, please, don’t consent. Wait - I never thought I’d ever say that...eugh. _ Lance unfurled himself from the fetal position he had moved into while panicking and sat upright, waiting for Keith to come out.

The sound of the doorknob jiggling sent a flash of panic through Lance as he fumbled to act like he hadn’t been freaking out just moments before. Keith came out with a towel around his shoulders, still wearing a black t-shirt -  _ wait how many plain black t-shirts does he have? The other one was soaked.  _ And plain red swim trunks. He moved to put down the duffle bag in hand back down onto a chair sitting in the corner of the room. His belongings were in neat and tidy order compared to Lance, who had his things strewn about in his own respective place by the door. He suddenly felt self conscious of his habits, not typical of when he was around with anyone else of the group. With them he could be a slob and not even Shiro’s remarks made him ever second guess his ways. 

“You alright?”

Lance was drawn out of his daze with Keith’s question. “Oh, yeah. I’m good.”

“Alright,” he replied, zipping up his bag. 

“Uhhhh....” Lance began.

“Yeah?”

“So uh,”  _ just fucking ask. It’ll be your ticket out. Please please don’t consent... _ “You’re cool with sharing a room, yeah?” 

Keith paused, looking down at Lance. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

_ He’s got you there. There’s no reason why Keith wouldn’t mind sharing a bed. And neither should you, as a straight male. Very straight. Wait. That might work... _

“I mean, two guys sharing a bed?” Lance emphasised his point, gesturing towards the bed. 

“Yeah? Not like I haven’t done it before. And plus at Shiro’s, I crashed with you and Allura.” Keith shrugged. “Doesn’t matter to me.” 

“Right. Right. Totally chill. Cool. Bro sleepover. In a bed. Bro bed. Bred, if you will.” Lance nodded in serious agreement with himself. He was now stuck sharing a room with Keith, with a washroom that had poor insulation. Oh God Keith will be able to hear him pee. That will be fine though. Just two bros in the same room. One of which who was totally straight. He was a vagina man through and through and Keith was just a bro. Totally chill. Nothing to fear.  _ The group chat’s title? Bullshit. No one is getting laid here, except my head on that pillow....Next to Keith. A really pretty TA who can recite Shakespeare and pin me down underwater. I am a full hetero... Fuck me.... _

“...Right.” Keith made his way towards the door, holding onto the towel around his neck, turning to look at Lance once more before leaving the room. “So you gonna stay in  _ bed _ all day or you gonna go swimming. Unless swimming fully clothed is the only way for you.”

“Oh yeah! Lemme just grab my towel,” Lance shot up and ran towards the door, snatching his towel from off the floor while following Keith. He sent one last message before pocketing his phone.

**Lance** : i still hate u guys.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm crying. I kept getting emails of kudos and seeing that love brought me back just in time for the season 3 trailer. Oh man.  
> I'm ready for the angst.  
> You guys are the bestest <333  
> Also s/o to Graphophobic for being my beta this round and for the shitty jokes ilu.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I was panicking!”
> 
> “You’re always panicking, Lance,” Pidge corrected.

“I may have used the term ‘bred’. Like...bro bed.”  
  
“You didn’t.”  
  
“I did...”

Allura put the knife down from where she was chopping vegetables in order to rub her face in exhaustion. Meanwhile, Lance was in the corner of the kitchen, sulking and eating the fries he had made for their dinner feast. He was catching Allura up to speed on his sandy-smooth social skills while everyone else tended to their own business around the house. Hunk was outside with Shiro, manning the barbeque. Pidge had enough of the sun for one day and was in the living room, going through all the books Hunk’s parents had on their bookshelves, and Keith was in the shower, using the same ensuite Lance had just used moments before. Water dripped onto his fresh shirt from his still wet hair, leaving spots on his shoulders, but he treated it as his own personal raincloud, haunting him. He did really well in drama class, if anyone was wondering.

“Okay, before I get into breaking down how terribly pathetic this whole thing is-” 

“I know how terribly pathetic it is, trust me,” he interjected.

Allura shook her head and turned to grab something from the fridge. “Hush. I need to explain some stuff to you,” she continued, setting down a bottle of tequilla next to the lettuce. “But first, you need to take some medicine.”  
  
Lance threw his hands up defensively, knowing far too well what tequilla meant to this woman. “It’s not even sundown,” he protested. 

“That never stopped you before. Now, a lovesick puppy needs his medicine, so open up and take a shot.”

She had him there and he knew it. “Fine, but just one.”

“For now.”

“For now,” he promised.

Gold filled the shot glasses as Allura poured for the two of them. They raised a toast, and the familiar burn that met Lance’s throat was welcoming. Maybe that was what he needed to calm down.

“Right. So he doesn’t have a problem sharing a bed with you.” _The doctor is in the house_ , Lance thought as he watched Allura resume chopping the peppers on her board.

“Apparently not,” he shrugged.

Allura nodded, taking mental notes. “Pass me the tomatoes, love? Thanks.” Lance watched her carefully cut out the hard part of the fruit that he gave her, still shovelling fries into his mouth. He’s gonna need to make more, but at the moment he needed to focus on something other than the mess of panic running through his mind. “Then we know one thing for certain - he doesn’t hate you. He likes you.”

“Yeah, I really doubt he likes me that way,” he said, rolling his eyes. He ran his nails across his palm though, the idea threatening to bring the tequila back up.

“Not that way, kid, we don’t know that yet for sure. But he’s here, he came with you in your car, and now he’s sharing a room and bed with you. I don’t think people willingly get into a car with the people they hate and then drive for two hours just to sleep in the same bed with them.” Allura pushed the cut vegetables into the bowl of already shredded lettuce. The cutting board clattered back onto the counter, breaking Lance’s concentration on it.

“I suppose...” he muttered, putting another fry into his mouth.

“You suppose nothing. You know I’m right -- and stop eating those! You’re not gonna leave any room for actual food at this rate.”

“I will have you know there is always room,” he resorted, pointing a fry at Allura’s face. She gave a huff of defeat and took a bite from him. “It’s not like he knew he was gonna be sleeping with me though.”

Allura rushed to swallow, putting a hand to her face in the process. She somehow managed to make the process of eating processed potato from someone else’s hand look dainty. “Sleeping with you is an added bonus then, just try and get some sleep somewhere in there,” she teased, still covering her mouth.

Lance picked up another fry in a fury to hurl at the woman. “Stop being nasty!” Allura only stepped aside and laughed.

“I’m just trying to help.”

“Uhuh, by being a nasty pervert.” Lance gasped. “Oh my God! Don’t tell me you were staring at my ass on the beach.” He covered his chest with his hands. “If I had only known I was strutting around half naked in the presence of such a lewd woman....” he choked out a fake sob. “And here I thought I was in a safe space.”

This time when food was thrown, it met Lance square on his forehead with an audible wet slap. Lance cried out as tomato juice was dripped  down onto his face. “I’ve been hit!” He clutched at his shirt with one hand and the counter with the other. “I think I’m dying...” He slid onto the floor, gasping and clawing at air until he met cold tile. Lance sprawled out onto the kitchen floor, gurgling. “Tell my mother...that I loved her...” he wheezed.

“What’s going on here?” Keith came near the kitchen, laptop tucked under his arm. He looked at Lance who was busy rolling around on the floor and decided it would be best to direct the question at Allura who responded with an easy shrug.

“A murder most foul,” she laughed. “But more importantly, what’s going on with that getup?” Lance pushed himself up from the floor to check what Allura was referencing to, curious as to what was more important than him dying. Lance was on his feet but he was ready to squat back onto the floor. _Oh my God he wears glasses. He’s a bigger dork than I thought._ Keith’s hair was clinging to his forehead where it was still damp from his shower, but in addition to his new towel scarf Keith was wearing a pair of black framed glasses. Under his arm was a laptop, but despite having just freshened up he looked haggard.

Keith brought a hand up to his frames, suddenly self conscious of the look. “My phone was flooded with emails from my students. They have a paper due next week and seems like some of them are panicking.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I told them they could send me their first paragraphs for me to look over before the deadline, along with any questions they might have. I’m starting to regret that.”

Allura waved towards the dining table. “You do you, boo. Dinner’s still underway so you have some time to work with.”

“Alright, let me know if you do need some help, though,” Keith offered.

Allura shook her head. “Don’t worry, I have Lance to help. But before you do any work,” she slid the shot glass sitting on the counter towards him. “You need to drink.”

“I won’t say no to any added help,” he admitted.

“You too, Lance.” She slid another filled glass towards him. “You’re gonna need to keep up tonight,” she added with a wink.

“Like I’ve ever abandoned you on a drinking spree.” Lance raised his glass for the 3 of them to toast and then knocked his drink back. He grimaced as the second shot of the hour burned its way down his throat. If this was the pace Allura was going at already, it was gonna be a wild few days.

Keith kept busy with his work while Lance helped Allura finish up with their dinner contributions. Pidge also joined them after ransacking through the bookcases, though mostly hoping to steal a snack before scooting back into the living room to read. Their attempt at sneaking away was foiled when Allura recruited them to set the speakers up so they all didn’t have to sit through dinner in quiet. Pidge took it as a win, though, at least not having had to deal with touching raw meat with their bare hands, or having to take shots.

Lance stole glances over at the dinner table, watching Keith mull over his work. A few times he debated going over to see if things were alright, but the anxiety that flared up at the thought told him it would be better to just leave him to his students. Allura didn’t say anything to Lance about his hopeless pining this time around, opting to instead just watch in wry amusement.

Hunk and Shiro, in the meantime, came in with plates full of grilled meat.

“Dinner is served!” Hunk beamed proudly.

“Did you remember to grill the pineapples too?” Allura asked, putting down the last plate down onto the dinner table.

“Of course, with cinnamon just as you asked.” Hunk put the plates of chicken and sausages in the centre of the table next to Allura. “I wouldn’t dare forget your request,” he added.

She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek. “My hero,” she teased.

Keith had closed his laptop and moved it onto the kitchen counter to make more room at the table for everyone to sit. Once things were all set and ready everyone chose their respective places and started to pass food and drinks around. Allura, Shiro, and Keith sat on one side, leaving Pidge, Hunk, and Lance on the other. Lance tried not to think anything of the fact that Keith was sitting opposite from him, but Allura and Shiro sitting next to each other made it difficult to ignore.

“This is so domestic, I love it,” Hunk beamed. “I’m so glad everyone could come up for this.”

Shiro filled his plate with everything he could. “Well, it’s all thanks to you and your family for letting us use this space.”

“I miss big dinners like this while at school,” Lance admitted. “My family does stuff like this all the time, but I miss most of it during the school term.” His abuela lived on her own so dinner was just the two of them - well, three, if they included Dutchess. Which they did. But he missed the loud chatter and the sound metal utensils made against the ceramic plates the most when he was too busy with work or evening classes to make it home in time for food.

“I miss home cooked food in general during school,” Pidge added with a sigh. A collective shudder went through the table as each person had their own cup ramen and KD trauma flashback. Keith’s lips formed a hard line as he focused on his food, Lance noticed. His thoughts were cut off when Shiro spoke up.

“I once survived finals week through protein bars and coffee alone,” Shiro grimaced. “First year was rough.”

“Just first year? Honey, every year is a rough year,” Allura said pointedly, taking a sip from her drink.

Hunk gave a solemn nod before lifting his beer. “I’ll drink to that.”

“My students aren’t even through their first term and they seem to be burning out already.” Keith gave a tired sigh. “I might have a few late nights on these papers, I’m already feeling it now.”

Pidge laughed, “Sounds like you have classes filled with Lance.”

Lance choked at the accusation. “That’s so uncalled for!”

“Your anthro paper was uncalled for. And who edited that one? Me.” Pidge emphasised their point by jabbing their fork towards Lance, reaching behind Hunk in the process. “I had to walk away from my laptop _three_ times to calm down ‘cause nothing made sense.”

Lance didn’t bother to finish chewing, talking with his mouth still full of potato. “Hey! I was also writing my paper for Astronomical Observations of Ancient Cultures during that time too and I was panicking!”

“You’re always panicking, Lance,” Pidge corrected.

Hunk brought a hand to his face. “Oooh... they’ve got you there.”

“And it’s not my fault you took a second year course by accident,” finished Pidge.

“Just be grateful you do have people who will try and decipher your chicken scratch. And I will admit you make some fair points. You just...don’t always explain them very well.” Allura added gently. She knew how to play his ego yet take it down a peg, like a real friend.

“I guess...” Lance sulked, poking at his food.

The rest of dinner went by quick, the house filled with friendly banter and the smell of charred meat and pineapple wafted throughout. Allura had picked a pop playlist from the 2000s to play while they ate, the sun slowly making its way down. By the end of it, there wasn’t much food left, only some meat that Hunk said to save for omelettes tomorrow morning. With the promise of more savoury foods, no one protested packing up the leftovers. Everyone did their part for cleaning the table. Mostly everyone.

“I’m calling it right now, neither Lance or I are washing the dishes,” Allura said as she placed the plates into the sink. “You four can argue amongst yourselves as to who does, though. We do enough dishes already at work.”

“Yeah but you get paid to wash those dishes,” Pidge protested.

“Uh, actually I get paid to make _coffee_ ,” Lance corrected smugly. He didn’t think Allura would pull out the worker’s card during their trip, but grateful for it regardless. _The real MVP_ , he thought.

“Then I’ll do them tonight. Keith, you wanna help?” Shiro’s question was a trap, naturally. He had already recruited Keith into helping, but making it seem like he had an option just helped ease the burn.

“Uh... sure,” he agreed.

“I’ll wash, you dry.” Keith nodded and moved to take his place as the towel boy in the kitchen. Hunk was right, this was incredibly domestic. Everyone had slowly filled a familial role in the group, which made being away from his own family a bit easier. It’s been a couple of year since he’s moved out for school, but the sharp ache of the initial move has slowly turned into a soft pain over time. He sat at the table with his head in his palm, watching Shiro and Keith while Hunk and Pidge put the plates and cutlery away. Keith looked so out of place and frazzled by the whole thing. _They’re just dishes... What’s got him so on edge? Every family does dishes. Speaking of family..._

Lance was about to ask where Allura had snuck off to, but she had already reentered the room with a tote bag and dropped it onto the dining table. “I had these hidden away from prying eyes and deft fingers,” she beamed proudly. From the bag, she brought out marshmallows, chocolate, graham crackers, and metal prongs.

“S’MORES!” Lance lept up from the table. “How dare you hide this from me.”

Hunk peered around from the kitchen. “Did you say s’mores? Oh! We can build a fire on the beach and roast them on there.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Pidge agreed. “I don’t mind roasting by the fire. It’s better than roasting by the sun.”

“That’s cause you burn like paper,” Lance pointed out.

“SPF only realistically goes up to 50, and then it doesn’t really make a difference. And even then it just means it lasts for 50 minutes in the sun. So you have to keep reapplying, and I can’t deal with the slimy feeling of it. I hate it, and I hate the sun,” they huffed. “It’s not fair that I’m the palest of everyone in this group.”

“We like you even if you are whiter than Shiro’s teeth,” Lance tried to smooth over.

Shiro just looked confused. “I don’t know if I’m supposed to be insulted or not....”

“Not. You have nice teeth,” Hunk said with a serious nod.

“Oh okay. Thank you. But don’t use me to off-handedly insult Pidge.”

Pidge just groaned and turned to walk away. “I’m going to go get blankets for the beach....”

“I’ll help you find them!” Hunk offered. “You guys can start building the fire. The logs are at the side of the house, as well as the kindling.”

“Cool, I’ll go get that started,” Lance chimed, heading towards the back sliding door.

“I can help build the fire,” Keith offered.  

Lance slipped into his flip flops and slid the door open with more force than was needed, sending it bouncing back and hitting Keith as he passed through. “What the fuck?” Keith exclaimed, rubbing his shoulder.

Lance turned around. “Oh shit, sorry.” His apology lost its weight though with him laughing. “Don’t lose your glasses there.”

“Are you saying you have a problem with my glasses?” He questioned with a glare.

“I would never! Just watch your step. Yep like that. Listen to my voice and you won’t get lost. Bring that blind ass over here, mamacita,” Lance teased. Keith only growled in response and lunged at him.

“I’ll show you who’s the blind one here,” he threatened.

“Bring it."

They ran around in the dark, yelling loose threats, but it all ended quickly when _someone_ ran into a tree and _another_ person found the stack of logs by tripping over them. Needless to say, they both earned a scratched knee or two and a bump on the head. Eventually, with some digging, lifting, and carrying an ample amount of rocks, they formed their pit where Lance struggled to light a fire.

“You can’t actually light a fire with two rocks, you know.”

“Keith, trust me. I can do this.”

“You sure you’re not concussed? You did hit that tree pretty hard.”

“At least I didn’t trip over my own feet, and besides I can do it!”

“You know what else could do that and more efficiently?” Keith asked, squatting down next to Lance. He was overly aware of how close he was, barely missing Keith’s sass as he flicked his lighter and brought the fire pit to life. Lance watched the fire as it reflected off Keith’s glasses mesmerised. “See?” Keith pointed out, assuming Lance’s gawking was just the result of being bested by modern technology.

“I- You know I had that!” He stammered, looking away.

“Maybe for tomorrow, sure, but I wanted to roast marshmallows tonight.” Keith put his hand on Lance’s shoulder, using him to get up. Lance felt his heart squeeze. _He touched me. Oh my God...._

_What are you? A twelve-year-old girl? Get over it._

“Oh you guys! Perfect!” Allura came down with the rest of the group, roasting equipment in hand. Pidge was picking at the smaller marshmallow they had brought as well, while Hunk and Shiro brought down enough blankets to shelter an army. Everyone took one, appreciating the extra layer of warmth against the cool night time breeze coming off the water. Lance draped his blanket over his shoulders, turning it into a makeshift cape.

“It suits you,” Hunk commented.

The skewers were next, and then followed the sweets. Lance didn’t hesitate to hang his marshmallow off his skewer and placing it directly into the flame.

“I bet I can make the best s’more,” he challenged Keith.

“How? You’re only gonna be eating your own. The only judge is yourself,” Pidge questioned.

“So? I’ll be making and eating the winning s’more, then.”

“You might want to pump the brakes on your threats, since the key component of your s’more is currently on fire,” Keith said with a nod towards the fire.

“Shit!” He pulled back his skewer, only to have the lob of flaming sugar melt off the edge and fall into the sand.

Allura shook her head. “This is why we can’t have nice things.”

“That was just a practice one! The next one is the winner, just you wait,” Lance retorted hotly, placing a fresh marshmallow onto his skewer. The 6 of them stood around the fire, roasting their food and each other until their stomachs grew sick of the sugar overload.

“Ouff, I can’t. Shiro, come here so I can lean against your shoulder.” Allura sat against driftwood huddled with her blanket wrapped around her small frame. Shiro moved from where he was sitting to join Allura on her side of the fire, draping his blanket over the two of them.

“Oh, I wanna join,” Hunk followed suit, adding his blanket onto their laps. He flanked Allura on the other side where she nestled further down between them.

“So warm...”

Pidge shuffled over too, onto Hunk’s side, and Lance, not wanting to be left out joined Shiro’s side of the cuddle pile. Allura sat happily between her friends in a cuddle sandwich. “Keith, you’re making me cold, sitting over there alone,” she muttered.

“If it’s okay....sure,” he picked up his blanket and added it to the pile. He sat down next to Lance, who instinctively threw the blanket over Keith’s shoulders, properly adding him to the group. He then noticed how close he was to him. The weight of Shiro’s shoulder against him was comforting, though. He closed his eyes.

_It’s chill. Just listen to the waves. You’re safe. The squad is here to emotionally support you while you fumble over every word trying to make friends._

He sighed.

_I love these guys so much..._

“What’s up?” Shiro asked.

“Nothin’,” he mumbled. Lance hugged his knees, burying his face into the crook of his elbows. “Just thinkin’ how the stress of school and all those sleepless nights and the anxiety and...everything is worth it for times like these,” he admitted quietly.

“Mm. It makes these moments that much more special,” Shiro agreed.

“Yeah...” Keith quietly admitted. “Really does.”

Lance winced at how heavy his words sounded. _Are his students that exhausting?_ He wondered. He gave a silent yawn and rested his head against Keith’s shoulder. _I’ll just push myself a little out of my comfort zone too, then_ , he thought.

The smell of Keith’s shampoo, the warmth of his friends, the sounds of the waves - Lance held onto these thoughts like a security blanket, his anxieties washing away with the receding tide as he slipped into nothingness.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR BEST BOY LANCE. I'm so proud of him c':   
> Many thanks again to Graphophobic for deciphering my mulled ideas and catching every time I wrote 'kieth' instead of 'keith'....again.... ily....  
> And thank-you again for all the kind comments ;;O;; it means a lot.


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was burning from the fleeting moment of intimacy. A simple caress. A brazened moment of brief contact where his fingers danced across Keith’s skin.

A chill swept through Lance’s body; he drew the blanket closer to his face to drive it away and snuggled into his pillow more. _Weird, why is it so hard?_ He turned to bury his face into it, but it still didn’t feel right. Eventually, he settled into the crook of the bedding and grumbled at the cold again.

“Lance...stop poking my armpit with your nose...” Shiro’s voice was harsh and laden with sleep as he rolled his shoulders back, a few popping noises ringing against Lance’s ears.

Wait, why would his pillow be popping? Lance forced one eye open, the other squinting against the harsh sunlight that threatened to peak over the horizon. “NNh...?”

The haze faded from his eyes thanks to the sun’s glare, allowing Lance to see the outline of Shiro’s body illuminated against the horizon. Lance looked down and noticed the very wet and noticeable pool of his drool on Shiro’s sleeve. _Eugh, yikes_ . He recoiled at the sight. _I really need to figure out how to not do that in my sleep._ He poked at the spot with his finger, causing Shiro to shift again. Lance shimmied his way upright and took a glance over at the group. Everyone else was still soundly asleep and huddled together like chicks in a nest. _Fuck that’s cute_ , Lance thought as a smile tugged on his lips. But he didn’t see Keith tangled in their nest.

He felt a blush creep onto his face as he remembered Keith settling down next to him, but when he looked to his left, all that remained was the blanket that Keith had brought over. _Huh. Maybe I should go check where he is. That or just huddle back in with the nest, but..._ Lance winced as he stretched his neck. _I don’t think I could physically handle sitting on hard sand for a minute longer._ He removed the blanket off his shoulders, gently wrapping Shiro into a blanket burrito.

His legs screamed in protest as he dragged himself up, threatening to give away, but Lance managed to steady himself before falling into Shiro’s lap. Although it would be something to laugh at, Lance knew better than to wake Shiro up first thing in the morning...again. He was lucky that Shiro was still mostly unconscious this time when Lance poked him in his sleep; otherwise, he risked losing that nose.

Lance watched his feet as he maneuvered on unsteady legs over the sandy dunes and back up to the house. He saw Keith leaning against the sliding door, but it didn’t seem like Keith noticed him. Lance took that moment to just...watch him. _God this is so creepy. I’m so creepy. This is creepy and weird and I’m staring and just watching...but fuck._ He’d spent time around Keith, obviously, but this was the first time that he’d seen him with his guard down. The sunlight creeping over the horizon made the subtle hints of burgundy and red glow in his hair. _It looks like a forest fire... Wow. Okay, Lance. Relax. That was unnecessary._ It wasn’t until he stepped onto the wooden deck that Keith looked up.

“Oh.” Keith paused and looked around. “Hey.”

“Mornin’,” Lance greeted with a tired smile. He rubbed the back of his neck. _I guess he didn’t realise I was staring him down - thank God._ Lance looked down at Keith’s hand, noticing the lit cigarette, its smoke slowly curling up. _Is that hand rolled? How much of a hipster is he?_ “I uh. Didn't know you smoked.” Keith gave a nonplussed shrug.

“Only when I'm stressed,” he admitted.

Lance took a look around the beachfront. “Are you...stressed...now?”

“I’m smoking, aren't I?” Keith took a drag. The embers kept Lance’s eyes fixated. He usually found smoking irritating, but Keith smoking? It worked for Keith. _How can he make cancer look... cool?_

“Hey, I was just asking,” he said defensively. “Damn. Who pissed in your Cheerios?”

Keith gave a tired sigh. “Sorry,” he expelled in tune with the smoke. It furled through the space between them. “I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I went through some e-mails and stayed up going through essays.”

“That’s...wow... they’re that bad?” Lance leaned up against the sliding door next to Keith. The smell was tolerable when mixed with the salty air wafting up from the beach. It relaxed Lance - water always did. It was why he was so stoked for their beach holiday. It gave him the perfect excuse to just sit by the water all day, watch Allura in her swimsuit, and drink after splashing around in the waves. He was like a child; once he got into the water, he never came out until he was prompted to by food or something to drink.

Keith flicked dead ashes away before taking another drag. “Worse.” More smoke plumed.

“Dude, you got this all backwards.” Lance shook his head. “This is supposed to be a vacation, in case you forgot. You know, where you relax, rest, avoid responsibilities.” He gave a huff of frustration. Lance had left all his work on the backburner this week so he could focus on just that, just like any normal person would. Not that anyone else in the group would agree; Lance had the sneaking suspicion that even Hunk had his readings already done for next week. But then again, his friends were far from normal. “Unless... you don’t _know_ how to have fun.” He crossed his arms across his chest and leaned in, staring down at Keith. It was then he noticed the tired lines that marked Keith’s eyes.  

“I know how to have fun!” Keith defended.

“Uhuh. Oh yeah, it shows.”

“Listen, not all of us can just ignore looming deadlines like you, Lance.”

Lance gave an undignified snort. “It’s what breaks are _for_ , idiot.”

“I feel bad for your TAs.”

“Well, I’ll have you know that they’ve been swept off their feet by me,” he retorted.

“Of course.”

“Look-” Lance gave a short huff. “Just, put it aside for now. How about I at least make you some coffee and force you to have a moment to just... stop.”

Keith put out the rest of his cigarette, mulling the offer over. “I won’t say no to coffee.”

Lance felt his shoulders relax. “Good. But you can’t do any work while you have it. Just. Sit. And drink.”

“I didn’t take you for one to force drinks down someone’s throat, Lance.”

Lance recoiled at the accusation. “This isn’t tequila,” he said, thinking back to Allura’s ‘medicine’. “Just coffee.”

“Just coffee. Alright.”

_Just coffee_ .

\--

“How did you manage to fuck up making coffee in a coffee maker. You’re a _barista_.”

“It’s different than the one from work!” 

Lance and Keith stood by the sink, gesturing at the coffee maker as Lance poured coffee grinds and water down the drain from the machine. Not just from the pot, though. Oh no. From the actual _machine_ ; Lance’s attempt at brewing a large pot of morning sunshine didn’t go quite as planned. The smell of sad, dampened arabica beans lingered in the air and he prayed that didn’t just accidentally break Hunk’s coffee maker. 

“In my defence,” Lance started, straining to get the rest of the water out of the machine, “the ones at work, I just have to put a filter in filled with ground coffee and press a button. The water is already connected to the machine. How the hell am I supposed to know that there’s a water chamber in this thing?” 

Keith narrowed his eyes. “By reading the top, obviously.” 

“I thought the water went over the coffee, okay?” Lance took the metal mesh out of the coffee maker and scooped out the cold grounds, making a face as his finger made contact with the slime. “Like drip coffee, y’know. You just...pour the water over the beans...” He heard Keith give a small laugh beside him. 

“If it’s so funny, you can make it yourself,” Lance huffed. He washed the perfectly good coffee out of the filter with a small pang of reluctance. _What a waste_.  

“I’m not the expert here, that’s all you. Besides, you said _you’d_ make me that coffee so long as _I_ don’t do any work.” He crossed his arms, staring down at Lance with a small smirk as he washed, hunched over the sink. “I think that would go against your word.” 

Lance rolled his eyes. “Fine. Then at least pass me the bag of coffee.” 

Keith grabbed the coffee from the other side of the island, handing it to Lance. If he really had a hard-on for Keith like the rest of the group was _convinced_ that he did, Lance would definitely have spilled more coffee grounds. His hands shaking so much after his lightly brushed against Keith’s knuckles. Maybe to someone it would have felt like his fingers were burning from the fleeting moment of intimacy. A simple caress. A brazened moment of brief contact where his fingers danced across Keith’s skin. Lance would have felt electricity course through his body as it ran up his arm, his heart drumming so loudly it caught in in his throat. Stars collided as he lost the ability to breathe in that fleeting moment. The room grew too bright for Lance as he tried to shift his eyes away from Keith, unable to make eye contact. His eyes trailing first at the outlines of Keith’s muscles in his arms, briefly remembering how easily Keith could hoist himself over the ledge the night of the party. _He was so soft_ , Lance would have thought. He would have lingered on the thought of Keith’s body, warmth radiating off him despite the early morning chill. Over the hands that didn’t show signs of hours of scrubbing dishes, working deftly to craft each customer’s orders, or helping Abuela in her garden. For a split second Lance may have considered wearing more lotion, just so he felt as good to Keith as he did to him. Maybe he questioned if he had a thing for nice hands.

But he didn’t and this wasn’t one of those romcom movies that Hunk loved so much, so he just spilled a normal amount of coffee during the process. Obviously.

Lance focused on pouring the water into the right chamber, which finally produced their bounty after a few minutes. Plus, there was still plenty left for the rest of the gang when they finally dragged their beached asses up from bed. The two of them opted to sit in the large living room, which had windows facing the beachfront. The sun had moved higher into the sky with morning finally settling in, flooding the room with a warm glow. They sat together on the couch and Lance wondered how he managed to always be the only one awake with Keith when the whole group was together. Lance never woke up before 10. _Never_. And yet, here he is again, only a little past sunrise with Keith. They sat together, switching between comfortable silence and talking about nothing in particular.

However, Lance felt unease filter through the peaceful morning haze each time he caught Keith staring out into nothing. _He looks so tired. And not just ‘overworked’ tired. But like...that over thinking stewing bullshit tired. Jesus fuck am I really that worried about him?_

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Lance shook out of his daze only to realise that he’d been staring. _Oh fuck,_ he yelled internally, feeling the heat clawing up his throat. Lance tore his eyes away. “Sorry,” he mumbled.

The silence was back, but it weighed heavily between them.

“You know...” Lance started off quietly. “If something is bothering you, you can tell me, right?” He pointedly looked into his mug, looking at his own reflection ripple across the coffee’s surface. _Well that was weak_ , he chided himself.

Keith gave a dry bark of laughter. “Okay there, Dr. Phil.”

“I’m just saying!” Lance lashed back, albeit more angrily than what was warranted. “I’m just trying to be nice, dickwad. You look tired.”

“Which is a nice way of saying ‘you look like shit’. Thanks, but no thanks. You can barely use a coffee maker - I doubt you’d be able to understand.”

Lance winced, but then turned back to face Keith. “Try me,” he dared.

Keith looked back, glaring at Lance with suspicion. Internally, Lance was panicking. _Fuck, I’ve pissed him off. Things were fine and there I go, pushing. Well fuck this. I’m not backing down._

For a moment, it looked like Keith was about to give in. Right up until the sliding door burst open.

“Good morning, sunshines!” Allura beamed, shuffling inside with a blanket cape wrapped around her shoulders. The staredown between the two boys broke as Keith turned to look at the source of the ruckus so early in the morning. A groan so low that could only have come from Shiro followed suit as the rest of the gang flooded into the living room. “Ooooh, I smell coffee. Look at you two, taking the initiative.” Lance both silently cursed and thanked Allura’s timing. He felt like he almost had an answer out of Keith, but now the moment was gone.

“But where’s breakfast?” Allura gave a small pout before throwing her blanket onto Lance. “Come on, up and at’em! Let’s go, chop chop. I’m hungry.”

“I’ll help,” Keith offered, putting his empty mug onto the coffee table before leaving the couch. He followed Allura into the kitchen while Lance gave a heavy sigh and turned his focus back to his coffee. _The fuck just happened?_

Irritated, Lance tipped his mug back and placed the empty vessel down with an audible clunk beside Keith’s before pushing himself up off the couch, tossing Allura’s - _augh, sandy_ \- blanket to the side. The rest of the group had filed back into the house, but Lance pushed past them towards his room. His _and_ Keith’s room, he corrected. Maybe it was because he was tired, but the way Keith was so quick to shut Lance down rubbed him the wrong way.

Lance fell face first into the bed. “Auuuuughhhh....” His groans were muffled by the down pillows where he let himself stay for a few moments before worming his way under the blankets. He felt sick. “Asshole.” His mood shifted quickly from frustration to just over all uneasiness, though, as his attitude soured after storming off. His ribs felt like they were aligned wrong and a knot sat in his stomach, so he bundled the blanket so it rested against his abdomen for some comfort. The pressure only managed to calm down the nausea and tension building up in his body a little. He always felt nauseous after getting riled up and the mixture of waking up before the sun fully rose, plus keeping up with everyone else’s energy this morning exhausted him. He was too tired to think, and before he could start overthinking every second of his exchange with Keith, Lance fell asleep.   

\--

He woke up to a soft knock on the door. “Lance?”

“Hhhuh? Yeah?” Lance drawled, pulling himself up from the pool of drool under him.

He could hear the latch turn, releasing from the doorway where Shiro popped his head through. “You okay? Breakfast is ready.”

“Oh, yeah,” Lance rubbed the sleep from his eyes. “Thanks.” He moved to push the blankets off as Shiro entered the room.

“You alright, man?” He asked, closing the door behind him.

Lance yawned, trying to process when he fell asleep and how he found his way back into his bed. “Yeah...I just fell back asleep.”

Shiro gave him a once over before placing his hand against Lance’s forehead. His hand was gentle and warm, but the sudden gesture caused Lance to pull back. He could see the details of the mechanical etchings on Shiro’s sleeve moving up his arm. “What are you doing?” Lance’s voice was still groggy as he struggled to wake up.

“You don't seem to have a fever,” Shiro questioned. Lance swatted his hand away.

“Yeah, obviously. What the hell?”

“Just checking to see if you're okay, is all. You're usually the first one racing towards food in the mornings.” Shiro gave a shrug. “Wanted to see what changed.”

Lance looked down as he balled his fists into the floral bedding, crushing the tendrils of violets in his wake. “It’s nothing.”

“It’s obviously something,” Shiro urged. Lance could feel his body rise slightly as Shiro sat down on the edge of the bed. Augh. He could feel the pit in his stomach return - the _dad voice_ was gonna come out, and he could already hear it. ‘ _What's wrong son, having bad dreams again? Did the girl you like pull your hair again? Man up, boy.’_ Lance gave a sigh. He felt bad thinking that way about his friend, but he did get that ‘overbearing-relative’ vibe from Shiro sometimes. He means well, though, and in the end Lance always felt better. Allura’s tactic was always more forceful and bordering alcoholism as a coping mechanism. And right now, his options were to either sulk like a child or talk about his _feelings._

“It's Keith,” Lance started, exasperated. “Look- I don't even know why I'm....upset. We were talking and drinking coffee and making jokes. And he teased me about fucking up the coffee maker and then I said something about him looking tired and I try to open up, ask what was wrong but instead-” Lance took a deep breath in, pausing mid ramble. “Instead! He basically calls me an asshole for caring!”

Shiro nodded along quietly, letting Lance rant.  

“And I'm more upset about _being_ upset cause I don't know _why_ I'm upset. We tease each other all the time, but it's never stung this much to be brushed off like an idiot. It's whatever coming from a prof or client or-” Lance gestured vaguely to the air. “Literally anyone else. But this fucking hurt. And it's too damn early and I'm too damn hungry for this.”

They both sat in silence for a bit; Lance could feel his heart pounding. Shiro waited a few more heartbeats before responding. “You're allowed to feel shitty, Lance. It never feels good to be brushed off or taken lightly.”

“Mm.”

“But,” Shiro continued, “I don't think Keith meant anything malicious by it and I doubt it was intentional. Maybe he genuinely didn't want to talk about. I'm not defending him, I'm just saying maybe there’s something more to it, y’know? I would talk to him.”

“It doesn't matter,” Lance mumbled, pulling his legs up to his chest. Shiro put his hand on Lance’s knee, looking straight into his eyes.

“Lance, if you're upset by it, it matters. And you're probably upset because you wanted to get on a deeper, emotional level with Keith, but got shut down. Maybe he's not used to us like that yet. You never know. But you do need to talk about it with him. There's still one more night here, and it'll be a long one if you ignore it and just pretend to be okay.”

“AuuuuuuUUUuUUUGHHHH-” Lance flopped over onto his side, crashing down onto the bed. “I hate it when you’re right,” he whined.

Shiro laughed, “I know.”

Lance stared at the mattress until his eyes got all foggy and glazed over, the two of them sitting in silence. He felt like he made a mess of things. _Why did I open my mouth?_ Things were fine, but now they felt not fine. Or maybe he was just making things seem worse in his head... _Fuck. Things_ were _fine_ , he had to remind himself. _Shiro’s right, it does matter to me. But I don’t want to talk about it more. What if it actually gets worse? But what if it doesn’t? Now I’m talking in circles. And Shiro probs thinks I’m just crazy._

“There’s french toast waiting, you know.” Shiro urged. The fog cleared from Lance’s vision. He pushed himself up from the bed to look at Shiro.

“With cinnamon?”

“Hunk made them."

“Cinnamon AND brown sugar!?”

“The only way.”

Lance scrambled to his feet, tossing the blankets aside in a flurry. Shiro dodged the flying bedding and followed suit. The prospect of food and the comfort of his friends soothed his anxiety away for the time being. Plus, cinnamon and brown sugar always promised a good day. In the end, Lance figured he’d give Keith some space for now, and focus moreso on the trip at hand. He was here for sunshine and warm waters before the winter chill creeped in. Everyone knew that the first break of the year always signaled the upcoming change in weather. Time to put some good use into his penguin swim trunks before retiring them for the year and becoming a penguin himself.

He wasn’t ready for the cold. It meant more people coming into work, and having to put on more clothes just to make his trek to class every day. He had to make the most of the summer before it was too late.

So, Lance spent the day back on the beach. The breakfast feast was just that - a feast. At some point, someone had made more coffee and it was graciously spiked by Allura’s Baileys. So, with alcohol and mountains of food, the dining room was filled with chatter that carried over to the water. By noon, though, Pidge had retreated back into the house to see what other books Hunk’s family had collected. Hunk and Lance had teamed up against Shiro and Allura on a trojan horse fight. Allura sat proudly on top of Shiro while Hunk supported Lance in their skirmish. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you looked at it, Allura had tricked Lance to look away for a split second and managed to push him off of Hunk and into the water with a loud splash. Keith laughed at the sidelines. That ended with Lance calling Keith a chicken for not going against Allura. Baited, they all swapped out teams after each skirmish to see which pair was the most powerful.

For reference, Allura and Keith were the winning combination. Allura said it was ‘cause she always performed best when on top.

The day continued as normal. Lance gave Keith some breathing room when he went back inside to do some work, Allura polished off more coolers with Shiro’s help, and Lance practiced his dolphin-like swimming skills. Lunch passed, and more retreated from the water to do their own thing and rest after splashing around all morning and into the afternoon. As the day progressed, the sun’s warm rays began to fall behind the rolling clouds. Lance’s cue to go back inside for the day was when the waves began to grow too wild for him to float calmly in his flamingo. But at that point, he was the only one left on the beach. He felt calmer though, after his incident/not incident with Keith while he floated around in the water. His mind went blank as he spaced out; a welcome change of pace from his usual mental rattling. But, of course, it _had_ to rain on his parade. Literally.

Allura was curled up in a fresh, non-sandy blanket with Hunk, taking a nap when Lance came back in. That seemed to be the general consensus within the household, Lance guessed by the stillness of the place. He crept past the living room, leaving small puddles of water in his wake. As much as Lance loved the water, he wasn’t happy about bringing the entire beach back with him in his hair. A shower was in order, he deemed to himself as he made his way back to his room. When he walked in and closed the door behind him, he saw Keith curled up into the bedding with his laptop open next to him. Lance felt his heart leap into his throat. _Oh fuck_.

He looked around dumbly, as if there was anyone else in the room who could help him out in this situation. He tiptoed closer to the side of the bed, checking if Keith was actually asleep. His body laid facing away from him, but Lance didn’t want to risk looking into Keith’s eyes if he really was awake. Thankfully, the steady rise and fall of his body though assured him of Keith’s sleeping state. He peered closer, but jumped back when Keith murmured and turned his body towards him.

_Please don’t be awake please don’t wake up please please please stay asleep please..._ Lance held his breath, waiting for Keith’s eyes to snap open and call him out for watching him sleep. He would snap, and maybe growl, Lance imagined with a panic. He wouldn’t be able to handle Keith teasing him relentlessly after today. _God, I can be so creepy. I’m sorry, man. I’m sorry, Abuela. Please don’t fling your slipper at me again. I swear I’m abiding your contract. Just- Don’t let him wake up._

“...”

Moments passed and  Keith’s bodily continued to rise and fall in a slow, steady rhythm after settling down after adjusting his position. Lance exhaled softly, giving a silent thank you to whatever deity was watching him. He leaned forward to get a better look at Keith. _His skin looks so soft_ , he thought absently. Lance worked hard to keep his skin clear, requiring endless trips with Allura to the mall to buy face masks - after especially grueling days at work - and trying to balance out the amount of caffeine he drank with double the amount of water. Yet he still looked like a sweaty highschool boy some days. He envied Keith. His lashes were still too damn long for any guy to have, though.

“Nngh-”

Lance flinched, shaking himself out of his daze when Keith let out a pained grunt in his sleep. His brows furrowed, a sharp contrast to how serene he looked just moments prior. Lance scrambled back, hoping he imagined the tears welling up through Keith’s thick lashes, and tried to get some distance between them.

“Mom...” Keith’s voice sounded strangled through his sleep, but Lance felt a pang in his chest at the soft outcry.

Lance blanched.

_Why would- No. Stop that._ Lance scolded himself to stop any train of thought on the matter. He looked at the chair near the door where his clothes laid and swiftly bundled them into his arms before making a dash out the door. He made sure to close it as softly as possible behind him, not letting go of the knob until he heard the _clink_ of the mechanism fall back into place. Lance made a beeline toward the other washroom that was - thankfully - unoccupied, locking the door behind him. He let out a shaky breath as he pressed his back against the frame.

He should have left sooner, he thought. That was such an invasion of privacy. _But, on the other hand, it’s our room? Yeah but that doesn’t constitute you watching him sleep, dumbass._ That’s not what sharing a room meant. He felt like he saw a side of Keith that no one else knew of. _Why was he crying though? Okay, look. You don’t know if he was crying for sure. It just looked like it. Maybe he just misses his mom? You miss Mom all the time, even though she’s just a few miles away. That’s normal, right? Not enough to warrant nightmares, though_ , his other side chimed in. _Look, it’s over. Nothing happened. Just take your shower and it’ll be back to normal once everyone else is up._

Then, he thought back to that morning. That uneasiness.

Lance pressed his hand against his head. _Stop overthinking this, Lance._

He fished his phone out of the wad of clothes in his arms, nestled in the pants’ pockets. He rummaged through his music until he found something to listen to, to get his mind off things while he undressed. Really though, he only needed to peel off the wet swim trunks clinging to his legs. The wet swim trunks were weighing his body down and making him hyper aware of the sensation of cold wet nylon against his body. _Goddamnit..._ He needed to put on music as quickly as possible and get under the hot water to redirect his focus. The physical discomfort amplified his emotional distress as the mixture of anxiety and the tightness of his clothes didn’t help sooth his pounding heart after leaving the room. He felt all sorts of wrong and needed his music on and the shower scalding hot to get his mind off it all as soon as possible.

_“Mom...”_  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M BACK. And w a vengeance. Ofc it's not gonna be a Klance fic without some angst.  
> (trust me it'll be worth it)  
> Thank you for your continued support and comments and kudos. It's what always brings me back to updating <333 Y'all are so sweet.  
> I'm done w this school term and came back from studying abroad which is why the update took so long, but hey it's nice n lengthy to make up for it too ;*  
> Merry Chrysler to everyone and happy holidays to everyone who celebrates something different!  
> You guys are the bestest.  
> And special s/o to Graphophobic for helping me fluff up my boys and make sense of my ramblings <3


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